Jul
29
2012
Zouo (Japanese for “hatred”) was one of the most interesting hardcore acts in Japan in the early ’80s.
They released only an EP (the final agony) in 1984, and a split before fading into nothingness. They played a very harsh hardcore, borderline with black metal, both in the music and in the lyrics (the theme of the demonic and the satanic is central in this EP) and this is very interesting: remember, at the time Hellhammer and Bathory were moving their first steps and I doubt that their material was available in Japan!
The band’s singer, Cherry (Katsunori Nishida) moved in the USA and become friend with Glenn Danzig and introduced him to Japanese comics, in particular Devilman, of which Danzig became a great fan. Cherry is also the oldest brother of Butcher, the singer of the hardcore punk act Outo.
Recently some unreleased material from Zouo has been released as “A Roar Agitating Violent Age” by the Crustwar label. Some old video bootlegs are floating around the net as well, one of them can be downloaded from archive.org.
Enough talking now…enjoy Son of Satan, the first track off “the final agony” !
Jul
23
2012
Time for an unreleased track by Danzig!
This one comes from the 1987 demo of the band, previous to the first Danzig album. This is one of the two unreleased song which are contained here, mortal sin, also known as when death had no name.
The song is a bridge between the old Samhain sound and the Danzig sound. Punkish influences can be heard here, with a bit of thrash metal as well.
Enjoy :)
Jul
15
2012
Avant-gardish minimal pop from Kyoto. This track is off their self titled album released in 1995. The song title means “Sunset on the Third Street”.
They mix a lot of influences, ranging from psychedelia to irregular rhythms, from dreamy landscapes to noisy interludes. The very good evanescent female vocals gives the music a touch of mystery and a great charming quality.
Definitively a must hear.
Jul
8
2012
Bushido was the experimental synth pop project of Gary Levermore, the founder of Third Mind Records.
This track is taken off the second (and final) album of the band, Deliverance.
Enjoy!
Jul
1
2012
Time for some good electronic music! Enjoy this wonderful psy / ambient track off the Memory Shell (2004) album by Aes Dana.
Jun
27
2012
Hello guys!
I’ve reviewed a new piece of musical obscurity from the far lands of Japan. It’s the first solo album of Naruzy Suicide, an important member of the Japanese glam-punk underground, leader of the Lipstick Killers, a band in the vein of Dogs D’Amour, New York Dolls and Johnny Thunder, a skilled songwriter with an unique twist and a very bizzarre personality. Give it a try!
Also, I’ve restored the Torpedo’s short story that was on the site before the wipeout.
Jun
25
2012
In these days I’m listening again to Andy McCoy’s solo stuff and so I thought to dust off my copy of the brilliant Suicide Twins (Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide) project.
This is the title track of their only album, gentle and dreamy, featuring the brilliant vocals of Renè Berg. In this song you can really understand why McCoy’s wife once said that Berg had the “voice of an angel”.
Enjoy the ride :)
Jun
18
2012
Restoration is 90% complete! The only content missing is the comic short stories, which I’ll upload in the next days.
For this week, I offer to you a fine Elvis (possessed by the devil, of course :)-like crooning song by Danzig, from his third album, Danzig III.
Enjoy :)
Jun
16
2012
Hello, illusioncity.net has been unfortunately hacked and wiped out…luckily I still have all the material that I’ve written over the time.
I will restore all the contents in the next days, it will be a very hard work but it has to be done.