WNICO – BON VOYAGE
(RIOT RECORDS/KILL ROCK STARS)
This band is a wicked
mystery. I originally heard them on the
John Peel show on Radio One as a staggering noise track burst from my stereo
speakers. It actually turned out to be
two tracks (“Taa Get Center Berwick Street Soho . So much about this act felt
like fortune.
And yet they remain
quite the mystery. They are from Japan
and not a million miles away from sounding like Melt-Banana but other than that
there is not much recorded about them (certainly not on the west side of the
internet). Their individual names are:
Ahead, Kira, KROZ and Zub Man but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are a four
piece.
With the help of a
Japanese speaking friend I am able to decipher that Wnico was/is a band from
either Ooimachi in Tokyo or Yashio Kanto, they did some soundtrack work for
surfing videos and that the lead singer was possibly a professional flower
arranger. Even if I don’t necessarily
believe these things, I want to believe these things.
Elsewhere any effort
to discover information via the Kill Rock Stars website only leads you down the
lane of mystery and literal description celebrating the scatological approach
to business by the band calling it a “a crazy trainwreck of a record” and
throwing elemental comparisons to Bad Brains and Shonen Knife into the mix.
Bon Voyage is a
thirteen song (fourteen track) twenty two minute bonsai bonanza. In wide and varied motion the band rides the
surf of several genres all based around noise snatching at hardcore punk,
reggae and electronica. It’s a very
futuristic, cyberpunk affair, a beacon of craziness in amongst an overload of
neon.
It fires in a flurry
with the two aforementioned hardcore tracks juddering and roaring into action
with end of the world gestures and Atari Teenage Riot like vocal screams. And then it gets playful with “Proffecior T”
that crashes in with a wacky rap coupled with female inserts much in the style
of Cibo Matto ahead of building into a lurching bounce.
Arriving at “A Motion”
and its stuttering thunderous hardcore which descends into scratching coupled
with an Ad-Rock-esqe baseline suddenly there is something very Grand Royal
about this package/treatment. And going
forward often the bass sounding really does drive and poke through.
Then in the style of
Bad Brains the listener is offered a breather in the form of “Overjoy” and some
heavy dub reggae with booming bass and echoed vocals that feel that they could
go forever. And a few tracks later we
receive more of the same with the expansive “Hell Bird”.
Generally it is the
hardcore punk that dominates proceedings.
Only four songs on the album pass the two minute mark and half of them
are the reggae numbers. “Burger Time”
sounds particularly like a Beastie Boys work out with feedback and a heavy
distorted baseline that could topple buildings.
Later “Up Stairs” reminds me of an all female Japanese metal band called
Gallhammer while the pleasingly spelled “Dead Hiway” contains a crazed “toot
toot toot” chorus hook that serves to remind of Nardwuar The Human Serviette.
Most of Wnico is a fun
and playful experience. “D Land” begins
sounding like it is being played in a different room in the distance and as it
nears naturally the noise increases until it is pleasantly in your face before
performing a perfect kiss and run act disappearing back into the distance.
If this is to be there
only album (which appears to be the case), Wnico had a perfect career.
Thesaurus moment:
epigrammatic.
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