Japanese true Goth scene part II: G-Schmitt and 黒色エレジー (Black Elegy)
Picture of Syoko, singer from G-Schmitt (1984)
I am coming to you with a new article about Japanese Gothic scene !
I had a few good feedbacks on my previous article, so I thought sharing my last discovers with you guyzs, could be a good idea ;)
So again, I am speaking here about a true gothic scene in Japan, in the way we understand it in western countries, meaning Post Punk, Cold Wave, New Wave, Batcave, Death rock… The aim is to demonstate that there was a dark scene in Japan far before the arrival of Visual Kei.
So firstly, I wanted to introduce you 黒色エレジー, which basically means “Black Elegy”also called “Kokushoku Elegy” a band from the Okayama prefecture, that issued their first album in 1985. The vocals are made by a charismatic girl, and are very very closed to Siouxie and the Banshees! ^^ Nice hu?
Her name is Kyoko, and she apparently learned to sing with her Japanese grand-mother, who gave her some typical intonations in the voice.
You can find plenty of good quality videos around youtube, I post a few here, so you can see the sound, and the band live.
Click to viewI wonder how I could ignore about this group before! They released 4 or 5 dics according to Discogs and Last FM. On the last FM page you can listen to their full length and most famous album “Esoderic Mania, released in 1988 on the TranRecords label.
Apparently, from what you can read, certain members of the band were previously part of « Human bullet », a hardcore punk band from the beginning of the 80’s.
If you read Japanese, you can find a more complete article on this blog.
Another very good band with female vocals is G-Schmitt. It is a really high quality typically Gothic band: the compositions are really well done, and the voice is really nice too. Formed in 1983, split in 1990, their singer Syoko seemed to had a solo carrier after that.
I love her voice: this sound that is really closed to what is gothic to me. I would say it is a level of quality upper than “Black Elegy”. It is sincerely difficult to find some biographic elements on the internet, event if the discography looks impressive. A lot of titles seems to turn around the drugs theme, like "Mescaline", "Lsd"… but also around classic gothic theme: "Cathedral junky", "cahtolic" or "Le paradis" , which are also some exemples of (musically) good titles.
All members at the back side of a vynil:
Haha, so cool vintage picture: with the leather short pants, large shirt, and those most famous gothic boots from the 80's! Witch boots ;)
Under this video you can listen to a playlist of nearly 35 titles on youtube: all of them are from different times in their carrier, and very interesting.
I will just add a live performance that caught my eye too ;)
They were signed up under the “Wechselbalg Syndicate” Label: I found a few compilations of this label where G-Schmitt is on the playlist, but the DL links are dead by now. They were on the same label than madame Edwarda, so it's not rare to see them on the same discs!
Some oldies compilations covers from their labbel, featuring Madame Edwarda, G-Schmitt, Sadies-Sad, Auto-mod...)
Ok, I sould not do that, but if you want some albums, some of the awesome links of this awesome blog are not dead. Since most of the albums are sold out, this is a bit the only way to listen to this awesome band!
If you have the occasion to listen one of their best albums called “Struggle to survive”, then go! There are plenty of good titles like “mescaline” or “Catholic” (the live video above is from this title), or "official bootleg", which was produced later in their carrier.
That’s all for today, folks, but be sure I will complete this list after! ;)
By the meaning time, you can check three awesome blogs specialized in Japanese authentic Goth and Post-Punk bands:
Leprosarium, Mescaline Dream, and Japanese Goth,
this last guy also has a facebook, with oldies photos: this guy even own some newspaper articles, posters and tickets from concert from awesome goth bands from the 80’s in Japan (Sodome, Madame Edwarda, G-Schmitt…)! Eye candy! ^^