FECKING BAHAMAS I. JAPAN – ‘5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION’
In early 2013, I decided to put aside my indecision and just send Tak Yamamoto a message. I was a writer for the now-defunct blog Musical Mathematics. Tak had his own blog Hi Hi Whoopee; he had posted an article he wrote on math rock on the Musical Mathematics Facebook page. Now, in 2013, the only contemporary Japanese math rock bands that were reaching international ears were toe and LITE. If you dug a little deeper, you’d find Uchu Combini, mudy on the sakuban, Zazen Boys, te and tricot, who were still working their way up the ranks. If you worked backwards through time, you might stumble on Ruins and Zeni Geva.
All in all, it was far from an accessible world to the non-Japanese listener. Unless you spoke the language, it was very difficult to navigate through the labyrinthine world band Twitters and Tumblr accounts. What a major let-down it was, as we had been lured by a language we did know: the language of music. We knew that the sound coming out of there was angular, imaginative and very exciting. But no one knew how to bring it out of Japan.
When I saw Tak’s post of Musical Mathematics, my first thought was that this guy could be my insider – the local fan who spoke the language and was clearly happy to connect with others outside of Japan. He could lead me deeper into the elusive world of Japanese math rock. So I sent him a message.
“Hey man, really liked that column you posted on Musical Maths (I write for them). Can you recommend some good Japanese math bands? A bunch of writers and myself are [making] a new online math rock magazine and we are looking for new Japanese tunes.”
Within minutes he replied.
“Woow! Really? I know some bands. Just now, I must go to work… When I’m back, I tell you. downy is most effective band. Sorry, my English is very poor :(“
About two hours later, I had received 36 messages from Tak. He had offloaded a bunch of band links to me, bands like Graphic Lag, HALAS, NINGEN OK, yoso-wa-yoso and Marmalade butcher.
“If you like, I’m glad.”
I immediately asked Tak to join my new crew of writers working under the title ‘Fecking Bahamas’. Taking inspiration from the Cheery Wave collective, I proposed to Tak that we needed to release these bands as a compilation on Bandcamp. It took some time to convince him of the merit of Bandcamp (‘you stream without paying?!’) but when we finally released I. Japan, a compilation that was downloaded 2000 times overnight, I knew we had done the right thing.
I. Japan boosted Fecking Bahamas into the math rock spotlight. It portrayed us as bona fide fossickers of international math rock. We could dig into the most geographically isolated parts of the world and place the bands next to Don Caballero on our blog. Did I know things would turn out this way? Not a chance. Did I know that we would make a music event called ‘Bahamas Fest’ based entirely off the compilation. And that the event would sell out over five consecutive years? Did I know that we would amass nearly 30 extra bands for this 5 Year Anniversary Edition? No. Not an effin’ chance.
I am so grateful to Tak for being so dedicated to Fecking Bahamas from the very start of its inception. He is a father now, and doesn’t have as much time for Bahamas Fest. But Tak is solely responsible for making Fecking Bahamas a buzz-word amongst the Japan instrumental scene. And he has been my buddy through all of this.
Nikk Hunter – Editor
Featured artists:
1. LITE (lite-web.com)
2. Low-pass (low-pass.jp)
3. missippiroid (mississippiroid.web.fc2.com)
4. Uchu Conbini (uchuconbini.com)
5. Clean Of Core (cleanofcore.com)
6. Marmalade butcher (marmalade-b.web.wox.cc)
7. Yoso-wa-yoso (yosowayoso.net)
8. sajjanu (sajjanupechiku.wix.com/sajjanu)
9. chikyunokiki (chikyunokiki.net)
10. CARNIVAL (carnival@sskrstudio.com)
11. NENGU (neng.bandcamp.com)
12. NINGEN OK (ab.auone-net.jp/~ningenok)
13. te_ri (murakaminaoki.tumblr.com)
14. mothercoat (mothercoat.bandcamp.com)
15. cetow (cetow-4piece.jimdo.com)
16. NETWORKS (networks.strikingly.com)
17. Lop Abuse On Somebody (lopabuseonsomebody.com)
18. MOMA (moma-jp.tumblr.com)
19. LOOP POOL (looppool.jp)
20. LILI LIMIT (lililimit.tumblr.com)
21. Atlantis Airport (atlantisairport.com)
Bonus artists:
22. LITE
23. nuito
24. PENs+
25. AGATHA
26. Oavette
27. JYOCHO
28. testa
29. elephant
30. mouse on the keys
31. ilili
32. fullmarkscore
33. fulusu
34. otori
35. Paranoid Void
36. doesn’t
37. tricot
38. Cloud Nine(9)
39. loqto
40. quiqui
41. Ruins
42. Cuckoo
43. SONOSUKIMAKARA
44. Koenji Hyakkei
45. nojikas
46. Cyclamen
47. Origami JP
48. Sir. Fennek
49. 1inamillion
50. flamingo
Thank you
We would like to thank the following people for their cooperation in bringing this special edition of ‘I. Japan’ to life: Will Osiecki and everyone at Topshelf Records, Mark Fischer at Skin Graft Records, Sho at Bakuretsu Records; Yoshi at No Big Deal Records; Chiki, for providing the amazing artwork that started a legacy with our future compilations; and, of course, all the new and original bands who agreed to participate in this project.
The compilation was curated by Tak Yamamoto, Nikk Hunter, Eric Beyeler and Shuka Kashino.