Japanese Voyeurs : 'Sicking and Creaming'
Released: Out Now!!!
Label: Slimeball Records
You know when you receive a CD with a front cover featuring a cartoon of an exploding baby it's a slight clue that what you're about to listen to will not be a collection of ballads about love and the stars and all that rhubarb. It's probably going to be a little out there. Then you see that the EP is called Sicking and Creaming by a band called Japanese Voyeurs and you know it's definitely going to be a lot out there. Then when you listen to it and hear what appears to a possessed porcelain doll doing a lap-dance in a septic tank of the nastiest, dirtiest grunge you realise what you're listening to is as fucked up as hearing the Osmond family having an orgy in the next room. It's horrible. It's disgusting. Yet... strangely compelling.
The possessed porcelain doll is lead Romily Alice, who will either make this record for you or completely ruin it. Her voice is truly bizarre; it's high and thin which gives it a vulnerable, almost child-like quality interspersed with coital moans and groans. It's like a fetish, it either repulses you or makes you want to put on and adult nappy, fill a bath with live baby eels and jump right in. The band that goes with it comes out with some very accomplished grunge, but it would all be a bit vanilla without Romily there to attach the clamps and power up the car battery.
The EP consists of three songs of which the first, 'Dumb' is undoubtedly the best. Hearing Romily purr "Mommy, mommy/I've been a good girl this year" is the point where you'll either find yourself completely on board with Japanese Voyeurs or jumping over the side even if it's into a sea of acid filled with exploding sharks. The song's about not being able to stop shagging someone you shouldn't, but that's not really the important part; you'll be too focused on wether you should be enjoying this or not. I ended up loving it, there's no hint the band are taking themselves too seriously and are more concerned with being gloriously OTT. 'X-Ray Ted' is more up-tempo and aggressive with echoes of QOTSA while 'You're So Cool' is the song the Alien Queen would pop on as mood music before violating you with her toothy mouth-cock.
You'll enjoy Japanese Voyeurs if you're prepared to see them as they hopefully see themselves, a bit of accomplished and provocative fun. They're a band your mum will call noise and the Daily Mail might launch a campaign against, which makes them worth a punt if nothing else.
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