Homepage | Blogpage | About me | Music reviews | Further reading
Published 8/7/23
Revised 2/4/24
This is the first of potentially many album reviews I'll do on here. In fact, I have another one partially done already. This review isn’t actually even my first, I wrote one back in January of last year but it isn’t up to my current quality standards so I won’t include it on this site. If you’re interested you can read it on my RYM profile. I figured out how do HTML padding properly, looks better right? I've been kind of neglecting this site and need to update a bunch of things, which I'll get to eventually. There should also be a video coming out soon which will be pretty good so make sure to check the homepage for that.
Rating: 8/10
An anime-inspired colored pencil recreation of the album cover by me to avoid copyright infringement :P
Ever since I was a child I had been enamored with the Far East, particularly Japan. From the fact that the country is located on a remote archipelago on the opposite side of the world, separated by a vast ocean, to the customs and culture which, to an American, seem totally alien and mysterious, as well as a history stretching far into the ancient past, long before the land I stand on had been discovered. The fact that they write in a script that appeared to me like alien runes, to the apparent paradoxical nature of being simultaneously incredibly futuristic and bafflingly behind-the-times with regards to technology. I would read about this place in elementary school or hear about it on the news and always wanted to learn more. It almost didn’t seem real, appearing more like some magical fantasy setting than like a real place that I could visit someday. This fascination had only strengthened with time.
Fast forward to the summer of probably 2018 or 2019, and I’m listening to some synthwave playlist, and out of all the derivative vaguely 1980s-esque tracks with an Italian supercar on the album cover and a title consisting of some tired reference to an arcade or a sunset, emerges something that catches me completely off-guard, a track titled Zodiac Overdrive, by an artist with a short, simple name: Mosh. I’m not entirely sure why it was on that playlist, but I’m definitely glad it was.
As I explored this obscure artist’s discography I would discover that his name is Adam Bignell, that he's located in Vancouver, Canada, and that he produced his music during his time in post-secondary education, where he had access to a recording studio. I would also find out that he unfortunately decided to bring Mosh to a close after the release of his third and final album, Tragic Anatomy, in 2016. He now produces hyperpop under the alias Adam Ibis, from which he has released two tracks so far, one in 2020 and the other in 2021. I did not find that to be nearly as interesting as his first project, as I generally tend to prefer Eastern-inspired industrial electro house over... hyperpop.
Of course, as an unabashed otaku, I had previously and continue to enjoy my fair share of authentic Japanese music, particularly J-core and electropop, especially (but not always) with a Vocaloid in place of a human vocalist. Unfortunately, however, a lot of music originating from Japan feels to me a little too artificial. Some people say that Japanese music in its entirety is just copying the West, which I don’t really agree with, but something about the production of a lot of Japanese music seems to undermine its authenticity. It’s as if they’re a little too good at it, like it’s too perfect, too polished, there’s no rough edges to grab onto. In some cases this can be a boon and in some cases a detriment, and please know that I say this out of love, not out of hate. Perhaps it’s just a cultural difference thing. There are also many exceptions, for example Boom Boom Satellites I would say do not fit that description.
Mosh’s sound is obviously inspired by the Far East, as previously mentioned. However, it tells a fundamentally different perspective than that of 鼻そうめんP or 八王子P. The perspective of an outsider, looking in at this mysterious Galapagos Syndrome island nation. You see, while so much Japanese music feels excessively polished, rounded, packaged, Mosh is anything but. Sharp, abrasive synth melodies slice through the airwaves like razorblades. Rhythmic four on the floor beats progress and contrast with traditional instruments, namely what sounds like a Shakuhachi flute and some kind of stringed instrument to create an air of restless unease. While most Japanese music is obviously intended only for the Japanese, with vocals in their native language, the few tracks on Empire which have intelligible vocals, they’re in English. On many of the tracks, ghostly fragments of vocal samples, sometimes male-ish, sometimes female-ish, create a haunting atmosphere, as if the listener has just been cursed by a yokai or something. You feel like you could be in an action movie, a nightclub in Akihabara, at a shrine atop a mountain, or riding the Shinkansen alone on a rainy night. But wherever it may take place, the feeling’s the same. Cold. Alien. The girl on the album cover may be smiling, but that smile’s conditional. You’re welcome to visit, but eventually you must leave. The environment isn't quite actively hostile, but it is passively. You’re a foreigner in a society that existed long before yours and that, the way things are going, will exist long after yours is gone. Maybe one of the reasons why this album, along with the rest of Mosh’s discography resonates with me, is that it highlights the paradoxical tension in being a Western otaku. The obsession with a culture that, no matter how hard you try, you will never truly be a part of.
On the fourth track, Loud, Bignell takes an unlikely stab at hip hop with rapper Dendrityx on vocals. One of the verses:
'Cause there's a lot of trouble brewing in this colony-land
I've seen a lot of love-a-ruined, that's biology, man
But we just takin' it, we making no apology, man
To be homogeneous, to me it seems so obvious, yeah
takes issue with the social conflicts becoming more and more pronounced in the New World, and communicates a longing for an ethnically homogeneous society in which there isn’t any infighting. The self-evident benefits are what keep the society strong, but in order for it to stay that way you must be kept out.
The tension reaches a breaking point in track eight, Shaolin, in which a swordfight commences between a dojo master and an apprentice. It sounds like it’s being played back on an old film reel. After some struggling, the rhythms and melodies reaching a crescendo, the master is inevitably victorious. As the album reaches its end, the basslines pulsate and vibrate like ancient wisdom, spiritual power, just beneath the surface with a complexity that a foreigner could never truly understand.
Made with love by gray
Have questions? Comments? Suggestions for my website? Contact me at gdp770@proton.me