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2UP, "Teenage Mondo Trash"
With this very brief album the Japanese duo drum up 16 songs in just less than 16 minutes. It may be extremely short but this CD contains bucketfuls of energy.Their noisy, angular interpretation of punk is a little different to the norm and most importantly fun.
Ache
Musically Teenage Mondo Trash is thoroughly enjoyable. It sounds like a lot more than two people belting out these songs. While never showing off, both Tetsunori Tawaraya’s guitar playing and Keiichi Nakano’s drumming show competence and enough adventurousness to add a fair bit of excitement to the songs. They explore more avenues in thirty seconds than many bands do in their entire careers. Although I must point out that the music never reaches the madness of Fantomas, it is far more accessible with a heavy emphasis on punk and metal. The last few songs are the best examples of their impressive playing. For example, on “Torepan” Tetsunori flies all over the fretboard and extracts all sorts of great tones from his guitar without ever straying into the world of wank. Keiichi’s drumming sounds like he’s programmed to drum in time to Tetsunori’s odd notes, the two of them are tight but very natural sounding.
Tetsunori’s vocals don’t always work. He has a frantic yelping style that sometimes sounds great like on “Sirloin” but sometimes it borders on annoying (although that could be due to pounding headache I currently am enduring). He’s at his best when he counterpoints his guitar playing with his vocals, for example on “Hammer” he lets off bursts of pure guitar mayhem while letting off completely different explosions of sound from his mouth. The fact that he sings in his native language makes his unorthodox vocals sound better, I think if I could understand him I’d be less impressed.
It’s hard to get bored with Teenage Mondo Trash as it is all over so quickly. It finishes at just the right time as I think 2UP’s music works best in small doses. If I had to listen to 40 minutes of this I think I would give up but as it stands I can deal with it fine. Aesthetically I feel they shouldn’t be released on CD as they’re a band that would be ideal for a 7” only catalogue; they could fit an entire album on one record. That aside, Teenage Mondo Trash is an exciting and vibrant release that once again proves that there is an awful lot of music from Japan that needs western releases.
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