GeishaNo – Dystopia (Bandcamp, 05/01/2011)
Progress is a bitch, and cultural accumulation sucks balls. Why? 'cos they make it painstakingly hard to stand out in the crowd. Thousands of years after we have left the cromag caves we have by now exhausted every possible angle of storytelling. While music is, admittedly, part storytelling, it is a whola lotta things more; but there, again, lies the problem, as these other primordial and archaic elements, too, preclude innovation. As things stand, there are three options available for the young and restless leg syndrome artists: a) regurgitation, i.e. use the same lady and the same dress and hope no-one would notice; b) variation on a theme, i.e. use the same lady and buy her a new dress, and c) innovate, i.e. kill the lady, burn the dress and get a monkey in a suit to tell the story. An alarmingly overwhelming number of artists out there stick vehemently to what's behind curtain no. 1. Fortunate few are able to follow the path less travelled and choose option b, and the exceedingly very few get to be killers. So what is GeishaNo? The answer will be given in the end, but for now suffices to say that the music this trio does do is simply the best money can buy right now.
GeishaNo brew a stew that its ingredients are obvious for those who grew up on late 80's and 90's music, yet what they produce is anything but obvious. Dystopia is a Lazarusian grunge monster beaten to a bloody pop pulp by men who have relinquished their hardcore roots in favor of a tamed and meticulously controlled methodological execution. In lesser hands, Dystopia would have been kitsch galore, yet when you know what you're doing, the thin line between the ridiculous and the brilliant is easily distinguished. While GN extensively rely on the tension and transition from pianissimo to crescendo, they do it like never before. While GN are poppy, they don't have C parts, because they run the entire alphabet up and down and spin your head 360 before you realize what the fuck just happened to the predictability of pop song format. Oh, it's not a pop song anymore, so man up, adapt and get with the program.
In fact, one may view Dystopia as a somber, mature, self-aware examination of the bourgeois: the turbulent background to Danny Aberjels' lyrics would have been processed via the hardcore outlet that was his a decade ago in the plastic peacocks, yet this time around, the vehicle is a domesticated, watered-down, assured and critical (perhaps even dissonant) version of this past life. This turn of events is not only due to age, but also to the fruitful collaboration with co-writer Yaron Melloul and drummer Hagai Schlesinger. It is as though Dystopia is trying to offer a package deal that showcases these two phases, one presented by the lyrics and the other by the music.
Finger tips is a prime example of how pop sensibilities can transform grundgy angst into a circus show that repeatedly amazes you while the very next track, Can't remember shows the exact opposite, and by injecting fearsome, laser-sharp drumming and grainy backing vocals, morphs a pop song into a pounding angst beast. Basically, each and every track on this album will make your head spin at the simultaneously obvious yet unbelievable fusion of those that were always meant to be but never were, the improbable chimeric beast of hardcore-pop. Dystopia is a relentless album since it consists of peaks only: there is not a single weak track on it. The melodies are catchy as hell but they conceal a killer double and triple whammy that sneaks up on you and catch you when you're least prepared. In some sense, Dystopia is an adrenaline pump due to its consistent drive to provide emotional sucker punches that literally and physically will hold you by the diaphragm.
If that is not enough, GN will also catch you off-guard when it comes to musicianship. Schlesinger's drumming is a tour-de-force of frantic creativity that not only provides the basis for the ferocious beat, but does so with precision and imagination. Melloul's bass completes the rhythm section, yet it is his synth-bass that provides the secret added value with perfectly timed and crafted touches of second and third background melodies. The use of two voices is also another aspect of the split personality nature of this album, as Melloul's smooth and warm vocals are countered by the abrasive, at times near growling that kick in when higher gears shift in.
In a nutshell, GeishaNo's sophomore effort is the best pop-hardcore album you're likely to ever encounter, and not in a cross-over, Metallica's Black album sense. It is a truly ingenious and moving marriage of pop sensibilities and song-crafting and abrasive post-hardcore. It is a very personal album that manages to hide the vulnerabilities and open wounds conveyed by the lyrics with sweeping, engorging and insatiable melodies. Dystopia contains some of the best songs you will hear this year, or any other for that matter, and it already stands out as the best album of this year. Dystopia is the epitome of the power of music to emotionally excite and move. GeishaNo are innovators, but not in the sense of changing the lady and her attire: they simply change the way we look at both. I can only hope that this album will find its way to as many listeners as possible; we can all use some of this quality in our life.
