Review by: Gareth L
I bloody love hardcore. Good DIY hardcore especially. Like this. This is a good hardcore record. They also win best song title of the day with ‘Possessed Marshmallows Dancing to a Creepy Beat’. The song ‘Tula Time’ has an emo bassline so delicious I want to eat it and this is the standout track here, there are several vocalists fighting for the microphone and it just sounds immense to me. The packaging is awesome; cardboard and screen-printed writing and design which is good because CDs can easily look so boring and unloved. This also comes with a small handmade booklet with lyrics and song explanations and it becomes clear the band have some interesting things to say about things like the DIY punk scene, advertising, and family rejection which are well thought out and sincere. They also have a bit of innocence and naivety about them too which is cool, they seem to be really passionate about what they’re doing which is really refreshing. Like this: ‘Support DIY labels, bands, and projects. We encourage you to gag when you see a barcode on a hardcore record or when a label puts out ridiculous press kits with “selling points”‘. Testify!
Musically there are lots of nice guitar parts, a bit of Hot Cross here and a bit of Orchid there, but overall it sounds a bit more straightforward than these bands, in general Jiyuana are a bit more chuggy (even descending into something resembling a beatdown in ‘Merica Loves It’) but have lots of interesting breakdowns and more intricate bits that lift them away from this and into the good hardcore territory. It’s ‘Tula Time’ again…