The GazettE Mini-Albums: Part 5 - Gama
GAMA (2005)
01 Anagra -SE-
02 Cockroach
03 Last Bouquet
04 Katherine in the Trunk
05 Sugar Pain
Gama was released a year after DISORDER, their first full album, and it was their last EP. The word gama means toad, but it also refers to a mythical hermit (i.e. sennin) called Gama, who was a benign sage and could turn into a toad. Toads in general were seen as great travellers and their superior defense methods and longevity had people using them in anti-age medicine (according to Handbook of Japanese Mythology by Michael Ashkenazi). But that was in ancient Japan. Not sure what Ruki's views on toads are or why he chose this title. (Btw, gama also usually specifically refers to a certain toad, Bufo japonicus, or the Common Toad. They are a threatened species, like pretty much any animal in Japan that doesn't thrive in farmland...)
(by Alan Savitzky at NewScientist.com)
Anagra is basically a minute-long intro/opening, with a James Bond-esque retro sound and organ synths. It's a pretty cool start for an album. I'm not sure what 'anagra' means here - the only thing I can think of is anagram, words that are other words when you re-arrange the letters. The Japanese, of course, love word play, but I think they're more into puns in the form of homonyms, words that sound similar or have more than one meaning. Go figure.
Moving on to Cockroach. Confession: I didn't like this song for the longest time. I thought it ugly and unpleasant to the ear. I suppose it was only after seeing live versions of it that I started to change my mind. Perhaps because the bass, on which this song is really built, becomes so much more prominent. The guitars mostly do simple but dynamic riffs that create a charged background to Reita's slapping. Even the vocals are more of a supportive element; it's a song based more on sounds and rhythm than melody. The structure is almost jerky, except for the chorus and of course the headbanging part which serves as a discharging point for the song.
Last Bouquet is... not at all as rubbish-y as I remembered it to be. In fact it's a rather pleasant track that nevertheless has no particular hooks to make it memorable. Although there is a tiny acoustic part with just guitar and Ruki which really makes me want to hear an acoustic Gaze album... The bass sounds very warm and gravelly and conspicuous like in all Gazette songs of this era, but after reading that Guitar Book interview with Aoi and Uruha, I feel a little disillusioned about the intentional awesomeness of that. Apparently they were simply such amateurs at the time that the only way they knew how to bring depth to their sound was to amp up the bass!
The lyrics are quite obviously (in my opinion) based on a relationship with a girl Ruki once mentioned in an early interview. Basically, they had been going out for about a year, and his feelings cooled and he started avoiding her, but she just kept calling and calling and crying over the phone. In other words, he was a coward who only realized later how cruelly he acted. This song is the "last flower" of goodbye to her... Oh, Ruki you heart-crushing bastard >.>
Katherine in the trunk sounds like it's based on real events or at least has an interesting story to tell, but... all I can say for sure is that there's a Katherine in a trunk, probably in pieces. Some people have speculated that this song might refer to the death of Sabu-chan, Ruki's old dog, but let's not go there. Musically, this is a pretty groovy track, a rockabilly-inspired one, for sure (...the "watashi no baby" parts crack me up so hard, though :D). The guitars are loose and unrestrained in a way you just don't really hear in Gazerock anymore; methinks Uruha & Aoi's control freak-ism has got the better of them nowadays! Uruha's, in particular. He's the guy who always wants to do things "one more time", ne?
And then there's Sugar Pain! One of my ultimate favourites. And it's become so BLOODY EPIC along the years. My favourite is the RCE live performance, which starts with Aoi going all "daa da daa da daa daa daa.... Daaaaaaa~" with his guitar like the major drama BAMF that he is, and then there's Ruki brazenly rubbing himself to a song about a dude doing his mother of all things, and then him and Reita are having their unimaginably hawt "Prohibited!/Education!" duet thing, and then there's Sugar PAAAAAin, and Kai's singing it too, followed by a niiice build-up with swirling guitars and Kai banging his symbals, and then Ruki and Reita are screaming, and then there's more PAAAAin. And headbanging. Let us not forget the headbanging. ...Such a good song. That is all.
All in all, this is a pretty damn nice EP. Too bad the cover art is so very blah. :/