Japanese based Carthiefschool formed in high school in 2016 and over these last 6 years or so have thrived in the Sapporo city underground scene. The 3 piece comprised of Tomoya Murosaki (guitar/vocals), Genki Tsusaka (bass) and Yudai Takasago (drums) have wasted little time recording as hot on the heels of their self titled debut album Carthiefschool released in February 2021 they have brought out this 6 track EP as a follow up which came out in September of the same year. Their blend of aggressively energetic post punk/screamo/post hardcore even jazz influenced sound really smacks you in the face and demands to be paid attention to.
The opening title track "Kenjimiyazawa" is inspired by and named after Japanese author of children's literature and devout Buddhist Kenji Miyazawa. After discovering this I realised I had probably been mispronouncing the name of the EP completely beforehand as my English brain was breaking it down into smaller words; Ken, Jimi then Yazawa and now I feel a little stupid. The track in question starts off with a quick but short drum beat, melodic guitar, jazz style bass and soft vocals which quickly come together and they lull you into a false sense of security until halfway through the vocalist starts to scream maniacally, and as the guitar and drums gradually increase to follow the vocals the bass is just happily doing it's own thing independently of the rest of the band. By track 2 "Kendara" you would think I would be wising up to what might be happening but this track is way cleverer than I am. It again has a melodic instrumental backline and some great time signatures before Murosaki makes a big vocal statement. By track 3 I thought I had finally sussed them out but I was wrong... again. "Wholeworld" is a kind of calming instrumental piece before you get blasted by "Baromos" which is straight into screaming vocals but has slower, darker, well timed musical melodies that chop and change throughout. "Yesterday" is also quite dark in feel with very gainy distortion on the bass and guitar. Finishing off with "Song For Kyrgyzstan" which has a cleaner vocal and guitar line than previously but has the most ambitious time signatures of all.
Kenjimiyazawa was such a massive assault on my senses I can't actually figure out if I like this or not. It's certainly not my usual choice of listening material but yet I can't help feeling incredibly envious of this band. These guys are still very young but it is glaringly obvious that they have bags of talent. Their time signatures and technical skill are so impressive just in these 6 relatively short tracks (their longest track being 3:30). After the first couple of tracks I came to anticipate the screaming but the first track completely took me off guard, yet each track starts so differently from the other. They sing in Japanese which is totally cool with me but I feel I could relate more to the songs if I knew what he was singing about. Tomoya Murosaki doesn't have a particularly distinctive voice but he can sing and definitely gives it some welly when he wants to. Recording and production wise the EP feels fresh, energetic and, I would hope, quite true to their sound live. They have a fair bit of distortion and other effects in there that have not been enhanced after recording. They have a full sound for a 3 piece and I can imagine their live show to be quite exhausting to witness. There is so much energy, angst and passion for their music it is a marvellous thing to experience.
Carthiefschool have shared Sapporo's underground scene with bands such as Nango and The Hatch who both specialise in experimental post-hardcore, math rock, punk music so if you are fans of those types of bands, or I can liken them to At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta or Liars for us oldies, then Carthiefschool are the band for you. It has been a while since I dabbled in this genre and it has not disappointed I just feel I am getting a bit too old for all the excitement!
