downy - Itsu (Japan)
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Song: Itsu (弌)
From album: 無題 (Mudai [Untitled])[2004]
Genre: Darkish Noisy Moodrock
[buy this album] [downy site]
In all my misadventures through the underground of Japanese music one particular find has remained dearest to my heart. I first stumbled upon this unexpected gem when perusing a cache of random promotional videos, and ever since then my appreciation has continually deepened.
This song is perhaps their most striking. It conjures at first glance an intense tumult of aural input. In the beginning it may be a nearly overwhelming flow, and could engender a desire to climb back to the safety of more peaceful terrain. However, I would take the liberty of recommending that you throw caution to the wind and let the stream take you to its ends. Because once you let go, the fury takes on a new clarity. If you can stop fighting it, it might reveal its story.
For me it’s a story of inevitability and a resignation tinged with sadness. The bass paints an image in blue and black of a world ripe for revolution. It’s an earthquake, an avalanche, an urgency in the air. The drums are the gears, hydraulic joints, and steam engines deep inside some colossal war machine just over the horizon. It’s heading for the glowing center of the world you know, and you can’t stop it so you had better just get used to the idea. The guitar clangs as gigantic stars begin to fill the sky. They are old but glowing, almost bursting now and then as they watch and wait. The vocal melodies tell us the sordid history of this song-world from beginning to now in tones both exalting and mournful. The saxophone toward the end seems to be the voice of the world itself. It struggles with its fate, panic and adrenaline as it sees finality fast approaching, and gives itself up willingly at the last critical moment. Or so it seems to me.
This song is so tangible I can almost hand it to you. If I could, it would be heavy and dark, and you probably wouldn’t know what to make of it right away. Trust me though, if you take it home, listen to it a few times and try to just feel it, in the dark, eyes closed, you may begin to discover a great worth.
February 6th, 2006 at 5:27 am
[…] If there’s a silver lining in the breakup of my beloved “Downy”, it’s that its members have branched out into even more bands with the potential for greatness. Eksperimentoj is a new project that brandishes Downy’s marvelous vocalist, Aoki Robin. And how can you not love a Japanese band with an Esperanto name?! I guess no one here went to their show on Sunday, but I thought I might as well post the only song I have of theirs, it’s from this compilation, and it’s good. I’m very much looking forward to what these guys have in store. […]
January 11th, 2007 at 5:31 am
[…] It’s simultaneously tragic and liberating that some of the most profound experiences in life either require, or engender, a paradigm shift. They aren’t accessible to everyone, just those accidentally on the cusp. It’s my opinion that Number Girl, like Downy, and much underground music, has a similar, if not parallel requirement. To fully appreciate this [very great] album, you may need to acquire or bring with you a disillusionment with the pretenses of human conduct, and a willingness to burrow down into the hot, dark, membranous strata of real existence. […]