Trollheart

I find them equally monotonous. I would cheerfully remove my head with a spoon rather than listen to either of them again. Cheerfully!

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Ayn Marx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC5YSuaH3Vc

Trollheart

Is that a challenge or just a comment? If a challenge, please advise details.

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GD

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lasty|rate-y music-y

grindy

bump

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Trollheart

Bump yourself. Although I have a million - no, I miscounted: a million, two hundred and four - projects to work on, I am about to tackle this again in a few days, so stay tuned.

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SGR

Classic!

Gotta say, I'm glad that one didn't get remade for REmake on Gamecube.

GD

lol. Would have been a good for a troll tho

however, I actually think that it could be somewhat atmospheric if performed on real trumpets or something. The thing that makes it sound as ridiculous as it does in the existing version is mainly the lame ps1 era sound design, I feel

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lasty|rate-y music-y

grindy

*shycouches*

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Trollheart

Title: Viva Koenji!
Artist: Koenjihyaekki
Year: 1997
Genre: Zeuhl (god help me! Oh wait: he doesn’t exist. Well, then I’m really ****ed, aren’t I?)
Challenge set by: grindy

I always expected this to be a challenge, coming as it does from the one who likes whetstones, but I must admit that when I innocently skipped whistling to Wikipedia to check out some information about this clearly Asian artist, the whistle died in my throat and something ran down my leg as I encountered the dreaded “z” word. No, not Zappa: I can take him in small doses and in certain circumstances can even enjoy his music. This is much worse. I came across Zeuhl, an offshoot of progressive rock during my review of French band Magma’s first album, and after listening to it I refused to allow my ears to be assaulted by their second. It wasn’t so much that it was bad. I mean, it was, but it wasn’t just that. The thing about Magma - I don’t know if it holds true for Zeuhl in general - is that they MADE UP THEIR OWN LANGUAGE for their albums. Yeah, I know; I’ve listened to Spanish, Italian, Russian, all sorts of other languages and not had a problem with them, so why so with Magma?

I think it’s the kind of screechy, off-key vocalising of the words that got to me. I’ve tried to bury the memory in my subconscious somewhere and am not eager to revisit that ordeal, so let’s just draw a veil over that. But since a) this is apparently a Japanese band and b) I see notes on “language used”, I fear the same may hold true for this album. Given, too, that this is said to be the band’s tribute to Magma, well, you can just see things going really badly for me now can’t you?

This is their second album, and as per the Magma one, the titles are all in their own gobbledegook (oh man! Can you believe gook is censored out?), so again I’m just copying and pasting from Wiki. I can hear grindy grinning from that tree of his (how do you hear someone grin? I don’t know, but I can definitely hear him do it) and I think he knows that I’m lost before I start. My expectations, never very high to begin with, plummeted on seeing the “Z” word, and I think it’s fair to say any hope I had entertained that I might win this one, or even survive it, is now long gone. Let’s get this over with then. Grindy has thoughtfully provided a YouTube for me, the bastard, so I can’t even make the excuse that oh sorry couldn’t find it. Damn.


"Grembo Zavia"

Ok so right away I wonder if I should be dialling an ambulance, as the guy sounds like he’s having some sort of fit. To me, it sounds like “Dancehall days”, but this is no Wang Chung we’re listening to. Also sounds like “Somebody, somebody!” to which I would like to append “Save me!” but I guess that’s not what’s being sung anyway. I suppose if you take it as a kind of chant and ignore the words it’s bearable, to be fair, and there’s something about it that somehow does not grate on my ears as much as Magma did. That could be due to the fact that I’ve by now experienced Zeuhl, so it’s not as much of a shock. Sort of a dramatic feel to it now, with what sounds like an emergency morse code signal. Hasn’t blown my head off, to be fair. There’s actually some kind of cohesive melody going on here, which is more than I could have said with Magma. This is the longest track, though there are two others that just edge the ten minute mark too. I think I’m less than halfway into this, but it’s not driving me mad, so that’s something.

Slowing down now with a bassy piano I think and some screaming guitars, a kind of metal (as in, banging on metal) drumbeat, very slow, kind of majestic in its way. It would be disingenuous of me to say the above constitutes a nugget, but my hope is beginning to return. I actually don't hate this with a passion. Bass and flute (or maybe synth or even clever guitar trick, who knows, kind of whine) are all that are left now in this section, and to be honest, without the vocals the music is pretty damned good. Even with them, to be more honest, it’s not terrible. Building back up now and I imagine the vox will be coming back in.

"Graddinoba Revoss"

Oh great. The tracks are going to run into each other. Didn’t realise we were on the second one till I checked the running time. This has a big sort of chorus-y chant and a marching beat, very slow and powerful, quite like this.

"Sllina Vezom"

Back to the slightly faster, higher-pitched vocal here, sounds like female singer but I don’t know if this band has any. I feel a kind of sense of Ancient Rome in this, and indeed the last track. The music is a little more chaotic and sorry grindy, I had to transpose your video to actual YouTube to get the running times, as this track stops and then I wasn’t sure if I had messed up. Seems I have not, not yet anyway. So there are single piano notes (I think) at about the four-minute mark on this song, and literally nothing else. Almost like they’re tapping out “Jingle Bells!” Gets faster and then the vocal accompaniment comes back in, with the rest of the band. Weird, but not terrible. Even the sort of breathy scream doesn’t bug me much, and I feel it should. Sounds now like they’re singing “Gimme Bose! Gimme Bose!” A sneaky subliminal ad for the loudspeaker manufacturer? I think not. Fun though. Sort of jazzy piano improv going on now against a very basic drum beat, and I must say it works very well.

"Quidom"

Definitely a female vocal this time, very operatic against hard, heavy almost metal grinding slow guitar, bit like Candlemass or Sabbath doing opera. Quite impressive this, and I think I’ll consider this my first nugget. Piano is really nice too. Did not honestly expect to find even one, but there it is. A bit more frenetic for a few moments then it falls back to the siren-like voice and the doomy guitar. Certainly my favourite so far.

"Aramidda Horva"

After that brief interlude we’re back to the mad, confused singing and speed jazz or whatever it is, and I can hear that operatic female vocal again in the mix. It’s quite amusing - to me anyway - to keep thinking I hear things in their bloody made-up language: was sure I heard “Need a bloody haircut!” in there, ho ho. I guess while to me it sounds quite chaotic, this is probably a demonstration of people who know their instruments and each other intimately, in terms of being able to play together, with almost a telepathic sense of connection between them. To the untrained ear (mine) it sounds all over the place, but hell, even I can appreciate the skill here. A keyboard run there near the end that Rick Wakeman would be proud of!

"Cembell Rotta"

Sort of boogie guitar and thick bass driving this one, with clearer, though no less intelligible vocals (well let’s be honest; even if this wasn’t Zeuhl, I’d probably be unable to make out what was being sung anyway, as it would most likely be in Japanese) and a good powerful chorus. The flanged(?) guitar solo here is pretty special. Might be a sitar, or a horn, or god knows what, but I do like it. So much so I’ll take it as my second nugget.

"Brahggo"

Sort of almost a power metal declamatory feel to this, again very in the operatic mould, and slower, more grand, with shrieks and deep bass vocals too. Now an acapella vocal, first female, then male, very low, though this doesn’t last and it kicks up again, then back to the acapella. Interesting.

"Rissenddo Rraimb"

Starts off really fast with guitar (maybe) and galloping drums, almost - but not quite - a Thin Lizzy feel to it. Very upbeat and runs along nicely. Could this be an instrumental, one wonders? No, one does wonder, does one. I really like this so far, and will take it as my third nugget, which means, to my intense surprise, as I don’t see any issue getting through the final two tracks, this will be a win for me. Who woulda thunk it? Man, the super-fast, swirly keyboard here is just amazing. Then some vocals do come in; I won’t go so far as to say they spoil it, but I think I would have preferred it without them. They really don’t add much, if anything, to the piece. My second favourite, after, you know, “Rotten Cymbals”, or whatever it’s called. The one before the last. You know the one. Oh yes you do. Grindy does. To be honest, this just keeps getting better as it goes on. Might almost be displacing the other one as my favourite. Organ work here is incredible. Real sense of energy and excitement.

"Guoth Dahha"

You know, it’s telling that - despite my initial expectations - the other two ten-minute tracks (okay, just over nine for this one and the one before) have pretty much flown rather than dragged by. I thought I would struggle getting through them but they’ve all just blazed along, as does this one, which has another big operatic, dramatic start, with the guy singing “Those valleys are really high.” No? Well that’s what it sounds like to me. Hey, is someone getting shot? Certainly seems like it, and someone is yelling so you know, maybe. Goes on for some time, this does, and now they’re almost certainly singing “Fighting ducks!” though I have no idea why. I would probably call this the least cohesive track since the opener, and yet, I still don’t hate it. Much.

"Pamillazze”

And nobody more surprised than myself to find that here I am, at the end of the album and clutching my three nuggets! It’s been quite a ride, and while I would still probably not really listen to something like this again for pleasure, it hasn’t been the torture I expected. This last track is just over a minute, so obviously the shortest on the album, and though I would have expected it to be an instrumental outro, I guess the first rule of Zeuhl (hah!) is don’t expect the expected. Or, indeed, anything. As a result, we get an operatic vocal with various bits of instrumental improve overlaid, mostly piano and a bit of guitar I think.

Okay, well, try to contain your shock, and don’t let it stop you for sleeping. This was absolutely not the end paragraph I thought I’d be writing, but perhaps that just goes to show that you can’t always predict how music is going to affect you, even if you’ve had a previous bad experience with it. And while I’m not about to go back and listen to Magma again, I have, while listening to this read back over my review of their debut and it doesn’t, to me, seem to bear much resemblance to what I’m hearing here. Is this because it was a long time ago? No, it’s not, because it was just over a year ago. Is it because the initial shock of Zeuhl has been diminished, that when I listened to Magma I had no idea what to expect? Possibly. But I think mainly it’s because, while this may be a tribute to them, Kenjiwotsit do Magma better than Magma. Maybe. I don’t know, to be honest. All I know is that I’m surprised and heartened to realise that I’ve actually triumphed here, where I had most certainly not expected to. And that’s not because I’ve bent the rules or made myself like this. I kind of don’t really, not as such. But I don't hate it.

And that’s a hell of a leap forward for me.

Trollheart 1 - Grindy 0
Trollheart 2 - The World - 1

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