アナーキー [Anarchy] "アナーキー" (1979 or 1980)*****

I think I first heard this album blasting from the speakers of a music bar on a warm evening in Tokyo (I think it was Bar Rockaholic? It was directly above a record store I visited for my record stores of shibuya post). The songs sounded like The Clash with Japanese lyrics; I remember there were a few customers shouting the lyrics at the top of their lungs. They seemed quite drunk even though it was still early. Later, I found in second hand shops some LPs by this punk band called Anarchy, and decided to take a couple together with me to The Netherlands - I've always been a sucker for non-English language rock. 

The band's self-named debut アナーキー (1979 or 1980? my sources do not agree) does sound a lot like The Clash , which makes me think they must have been the same band I heard play at the Shibuya bar that night. Three songs are more-or-less direct Clash covers: "東京イズバーニング [Tokyo is Burning]", "ホワイト・ライオット [White Riot]" and  "アナーキー [Anarchy]" (A.K.A. "Safe European Home"). "3.3.3." is a cover of Stiff Little Fingers' "Suspect Device", and "ジョニー・B・グッド" is Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", while the band took their name from Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The UK". Other songs sound familiar too, but I couldn't place them - in any case, the aforementioned bands should give an indication of their influences. I must say that this is exactly my favorite punk rock style: short, fast, aggressive, but still somehow melodic. In general, Anarchy seem to be closer to the English punk school rather than the American one. If you think about it, there are quite a lot of similarities between England and Japan in the 70's: former empires in decadence, ages-old society structures with an emphasis in decorum, repression and self-restraint, the institution of monarchy - Anarchy's disparaging attitude to the Imperial Family caused as much a backlash as Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" did. The lyrics form, apparently, a rejection of modern Japanese society, attacking consumerism, conformism, and the "worker ant" ethos. More in-your-face than the sarcastic British school or fun-loving American one. Vocals are aggresive, words spat out rather than sung, and tempos fast. Half the songs clock well under 2 minutes, the rest between 2' and 3'. Song structures usually follow the same pattern: Short intro→Verse→Chanted chorus→Short solo/noise break→Final chorus→abrupt ending. The guitarwork is relatively basic (power chords, minimal chord changes), but then again, that's punk; in any case, the guitarist sounds rather more profficient than his counterparts in classic English punk bands. On the other side, there's less variety in the music, at least in this debut lp: no reggae/funk influences like The Clash, or hard rock ones like Sex Pistols. Despite a certain sense of sameness, the urgency and short duration of each track here ensure the listener won't get bored at any point. There are no weak tracks here, on the contrary there are a lot of highlights e.g. the repetitive chant of "Not Satisfied", melodic guitar break of "Aburamushi", rockabilly guitar in "Mou Out", call-and-response vocals of "City Surfer" etc. As I said previously, many of these songs here are either covers of, or partly lifted from, contemporary Western punk rock. Yet, there's also something distinctively Japanese about this LP - other than the obvious, which is the language. It turned out to be hugely influential for the local scene and is listed at No.16 of Rolling Stone Magazine's All Time-Greatest Japanese Rock Albums list. Is the music here derivative? Yes, absolutely. But so is Green Day's, and they are one of the most popular -and therefore important- punk rock bands, ever.

***** for ノット・サティスファイ [Not Satisfied], あぶらむし [Aburamushi], 3・3・3, シティ・サーファー [City Surfer], 団地のオバサン [Danchi no Obasan], アナーキー [Anarchy]

**** for ジョニー・B・グッド [Johnny B. Goode], 東京イズバーニング [Tokyo's Burning], 缶詰 [Kandume], もうアウト [Mou Out], 季節の外で [Kisetsu no Soto de], ホワイト・ライオット [White Riot], 教室の中で [Kyoushitsu no Naka de]

*** for ロック・スター [Rock star]