Chris Low: May 2016

Tremendous thanks to my old pal, Napalm Death founder & Japanese punk aficionado Nicholas Bullen for writing this piece for my "UP YOURS! TOKYO PUNK & JAPANARCHY TODAY" exhibition:

Distort The Pose

In the early 1980s, the punk music of the UK was largely traditional in its approach: despite giving rise to highly influential groups such as Discharge and Disorder (both of whom played in an aggressive style, fusing declamatory vocals with distorted guitars and insistent drum patterns), the UK bands who played hardcore thrash were small in number and resolutely obscure. The desire for an intensity in approach and sound led some of us to look further afield, and the tape trading culture which had developed around underground punk was a perfect vehicle for the exploration of the developments in hardcore thrash which were taking place around the globe, particularly those from America, Finland, Italy and Holland. And then we began to hear about Japan...

Reviews of Japanese releases in the American magazine Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll provided an initial awareness of this hitherto unknown location, with evocative names such as The Stalin, Star Club, The Execute, Gas and Comes featured on compilation albums such as ‘Outsider’, ‘City Rockers’, and ‘Great Punk Hits’. The first opportunity to hear the music came via two compilation albums from America (‘Welcome to 1984’ and ‘P.E.A.C.E.’, both released in 1984) which featured the Japanese groups The Stalin, The Execute and GISM, and by the mid 1980s recordings from Japan were circulating through the international tape trading culture, providing access to releases by groups such as Confuse, Gai, Outo, Crow and Gauze.

Characterised by raw and garbled vocals, scything guitars bathed in distortion (often with an edge inflected by heavy metal) and aggressively monomaniacal rhythms, Japanese hardcore punk possessed a dark dynamism and ferocious sense of intent which permeated both the playing and the sound. Highly informed by Discharge and Disorder, it also began to exert its own influence: in the mid 1980s, groups across the UK (from Bristol to Nottingham, Newcastle, Ipswich and beyond) were energised and inspired by the vivacity of Japanese hardcore, including my own group Napalm Death where I was particularly inspired by the urgency and guttural growling of the vocalists in GISM and Kuro.

I first met Chris Low at the beginning of the 1980s through our involvement in the ‘anarcho punk’ subculture. Being the type of 12 and 13 year olds who preferred to spend their evenings duplicating cassette tapes and listening to John Peel rather than focusing on their school homework, we wrote letters and sent cassettes to each other, and met up at anarcho punk concerts around the UK. We also shared a mutual interest in subcultures and their manifestations, and Chris’ passion is evident in his images. The focus on detail in Japanese subculture is highlighted through the subject’s confident re-presentation of the stylistic elements of UK punk (the studded leather jackets, the neon spiked and mohicaned hair, the ripped and torn black rags), complimented by the snarls and “Up yours!” flicked V-signs directed at Chris’ camera. The images exude the energy of a subculture which encompasses all ages, capturing its vitality and exuberance (as evidenced by the smiles which crowd the images).

Nicholas Bullen (founder and original vocalist of Napalm Death, musician and artist)

http://redgallerylondon.com/event/yours-tokyo-punk-japanarchy