“Alternative rock/electronic band WRENCH returns with a new album featuring cool collaborations and a lot of experimenting.”
BAND: WRENCH
ALBUM: drub
LABEL: cutting edge
CATALOG #: CTCR-14589
DURATION: 53:21
RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2008
- 幻想X feat. SEIJI
- drift feat. Tadanobu Asano
- firestorm – TAKKYU ISHINO remix-
- dcdc feat. HIFANA
- fill more (feel more /123BPM ver.) – AYASHIGE remix-
- into the hot
- hal
- recovered -GOTH-TRAD remix-
- falling
- rising
WRENCH, the alternative rock/electronic band from Japan consists of vocalist (and on synth) SHIGE, Azuma Sakamoto on guitar, Tomohiro Matsuda on bass and MUROCHIN on drums released their tenth album “drub” back in July.
The group’s music can be compared to bands such as MAXIMUM THE HORMONE and THE MAD CAPSULE MARKETS features literally a hard rock band that incorporates electronic elements to their music.
The latest album features a good number of collaborations such as the first track “幻想X” with GUITAR WOLF’s SEIJI that features a crazy percussion driven intro that transitions to a wicked electric guitar driven track. An overall cool track that is just heavy hitting! SEIJI contributes on guitar and vocals.
The second track “drift” features Tadanobu Asano. Tadanobu Asano is an award winning actor who people remember him as the psycopath killer from “Ichii the Killer” and married to music artist Chara. But Asano contributes in vocals. My favorite song on the album that features an apathetic style of vocals with clanging guitars. Mind-numbingly cool!
The third track “firestorm” features a collaboration with DJ TAKKYU ISHINO. An electronic synth driven track unlike the previous two tracks which were electric guitar driven, an all out synth track with quite a bit of digital manipulation.
The fourth track “dcdc” features a collaboration with HIFANA which is an instrumental featuring hard rock and digital manipulation/experimental. HIFANA contributes with the turntable.
The fifth track features an AYASHIGE remix of “fill more”. Another electronic track with experimentation and almost a BOREDOMS-like noise track.
The sixth track “into the hot” is a rock-based instrumental track with a digital touch of vocalized robotic vocals.
The seventh track “hal” is another rock instrumental track with experimentalism done on various slabs of instruments and sound and how it is used on each speaker with sounds going from the left speaker and sounds echoing to the right.
The “recovered” is a “GOTH -TRAD remix” that reminds me of late 90’s Renegade Soundwave style of electronic music. The collaboration is with GOTH-TRAD which featuers a big slab of digital music featuring layers of percussion, electronic groove and noise.
The ninth track “falling” features a hard hitting rock track with vocals…although the vocals are more of screaming. clanging guitars with some experimental sounds.
The final track is another instrumental that seems to experiment with the electric guitar and bass and a slow buildup with the percussion.
The CD insert booklet features lyrics and production credits. Included is a flyer promoting the “drub -Release Party” on Sept. 23rd at the Ebisu Liquidroom.
NOTE: Some sites promoted this album with a CD-EXTRA but I found no CD-EXTRA on this album. Perhaps it was only on the first printing.
There are some pretty cool tracks but as much as I do listen to a lot of electronic music as well as various styles of rock music, I found myself gravitating to the vocal tracks because the music was more heavy hitting, frantic and full of energy.
The instrumental music, while some were pretty cool, others seemed more experimental but I know a lot of people enjoy that. So, this album features a good balance of collaboration, cool rock tracks but also a balance of digital electronic music as well!
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