Welcome to the cross kings, the basement dwelling of the Psychedelic Far East for the night. No lights are on except limited colored lights on the floor stage and a light illuminating a corner of the room marked with satanic graffiti. Ghost’s ‘Hypnotic Underworld’ is being played back to back and back again, bringing with it an atmosphere felt by myself and the two bands playing before and a few curious on lookers. Four young men with hair down to their waists (almost) take to the stage and begin, you can barely see a thing but you can hear the bouncing echo of the guitars ringing back and forth. That feeling in the air before a big storm, an almost static electronic pulse, an invisible atmosphere that keeps you routed in suspense, it’s on it’s way, you can feel it.
“Hello we are Bo Ningen, we thank you very much for coming”
(Silence)
A whirlwind of sound… Taigen amidst the rubbles of the awe struck crowd and the sudden crashing and colliding maze of fuzzed out guitars, like a voodoo cursed conductor, he leads his fucked up symphony to what seems a beautiful maze of noise. His hands shake in a wild sequence of contorted movements as he silently introduces his members which include Guitar number one Yuki Tsuji, guitar number two Kohhei Matsuda and finally Mon-chan the brutal backbone of the band.
Bo Ningen play with such fierce determination and such gut busting precision that it feels as if they’ve always been around. Nothing about this band is forged from the past; they are a complete separate entity. They play rock n roll through and through with a sense of humor, picking upon the anthem like riffs of the late sixties early seventies psychedelic scene filtering them through the experimental dirge of the japanoise revolution leaving the P.A to fry for the next band to dare play after them. As good as they are live they haven’t projected in my opinion a parallel on record*****, but at the same time why should they? And also this is only the beginning of what is to come. Their live performance is encapsulating, a sonic destruction a lot of people won’t understand or won’t want to understand, a true embodiment of there talent and lust for making noises and sounds is often impossible to put onto record. So critics hold your words.
Something that makes this band stand out is whether you like the music or not you will be inspired to start a band, collect music that they admire or at least want to look like them. Bo Ningen have a thing a lot of bands do not, a hypnotic presence which goes past the way they look, it’s the sound they project. An intense noise force designed for them and only them at that present moment. You the audience come second. It just so happens they know you’re there, so sporadic creation and blinding performance is imminent. They’ve stormed into London with a swagger that can’t for now be matched.
This music is the awful premonition that the pastors of fifties America proclaimed would behold the world and be it’s very downfall, if we fell for the charms of rock and roll. Well this is what they dreamt and we fell for it. Insane sound levels, chord structures unheard of for a long time, the snarling attitude that Japanese rock music adopted when the flower travellin’ boys sped butt naked poised for stardom on the road going ‘Anywhere’. It just so happens that these boys are driving harder and faster and intent on sticking around until we get the picture. All Hail The Stick men that are Bo Ningen.
**** Bo Ningen have a single release on the 7th Of December which is fucking brilliant, this review was written a while ago. Well done boys. S.C.U.M will be playing there single launch so come down!
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