Perfect Music (2012)
I am very passionate about music and buying records. I truly love individual bands like Rocket From The Crypt, Snuff, Leatherface, Him Kerosene, Broccoli, Bum, Pavement and far too many more to attempt to name. There have been geographical regions that have produced so many great sounds; Ottawa is currently going through this. The UK punk from the mid 90's, San Diego has had it's moments. But there's no scene or area in the world that makes me love music more than the melodic punk that comes out of Japan. Based around the Snuffy Smiles label, there has just been amazing band after amazing band coming out of Japan for DECADES. I feel like I'll never truly be able to explain it, but these bands are just so exciting to me. One of these great bands is Gleam Garden.
They started out the way so many punk bands from Japan do, releasing 7"s on Snuffy Smiles records. Then they had a Mini CD LP a few years ago and finally they have a proper full length called Brilliant Nightmare. I'm not familiar with the label it's been released on, Perfect Music, but it seems probable that it's a large indie or maybe a major label subsidiary out in Japan. No matter what the label is, they've released a killer record.
If you like the sort of melodic punk that bands like Lovemen or Blew were pushing out in the 90's, this is a record for you. They're more melodic that some of their current counterparts and can just craft songs like nobody's business. Vocals come out in the sort of raspy Leatherface-ish yelp that I just love, but it never feels like you've being yelled out. The melodies pushed through that gruff delivery just carry the whole album.
The CD is a bit of a pain to get here in America and I want to give thanks to my pal Yuki from SP Records in Japan for helping me find a copy (Along with a bunch of other great records that I'll be taking pictures of soon). I've actually had MP3s of this album for a while, but I never feel like I truly own the record until I have that CD or LP in my hands. Speaking of which, some label out there really needs to step up to the plate and put this record out on vinyl. You'd be doing the world a great service.
Gleam Garden - This:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8tVas3naqA
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