Kyoto four-piece Nokemono are more rock 'n' roll than having Pete Doherty slipping a needle into your eyeball while you're tied naked to a lamppost in Shinjuku's Golden Gai district and painted pink by a supermodel.
This self-titled debut album is proof. Singer Uma's vocal attack is as hoarse as a stallion on steroids supplied by God, like a katana slicing through a musical maelstrom. It's as if the demented spirit of Chabo, vocalist of legendary 1970s rockers Murahachibu, is bursting from his lungs.
If it wasn't for his rabid-samurai, million-fags-a-day delivery, the disco song "Groove Pusher" would sound as naff as a Michael Jackson track belted out by a sweat-stained salaryman in a disgustingly smelly karaoke lounge in Kabukicho. But don't let the mention of disco disturb you. First track "Boo-Bus" is a trance-rock explosion, like Iggy Pop torn to shreds by a Chemical Brothers-mosh pit high on CIA drugs that make people kill, while "QQQ" has the swagger of Kasabian fronted by Johnny Rotten. It's not so much lighters in the air as Kalashnikovs for "Revo-Evo," especially when the Black Flag-esque screamfest of the chorus kicks in. "I am Oneman Driver" is Television in a rumble in a Lower East Side jungle with The Strokes at the Mars Bar. You get the picture. Very probably the album of the year. Nokemono are currently on a nationwide tour. For details, visit de.fragment.com