General The Black Comet Club Band (nil x The JuneJulyAugust)

[carddass 273]

left to right, Masaru Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Kazama, Hajime Sato, Koji Kaziwara, Tetsu Takano

Tetsu Takano (ex-Malice Mizer and Zigzo) has had many active projects in the last few years. Zigzo reformed in 2011, nil has been ongoing since 2002, The JuneJulyAugust started in 2010 and he's been apart of Sato Taiji's Indies Denryoku folk-rock trio. This all culminated in 2014 when each one of those bands released an album.

It has been announced today that both of his main projects, nil and The JuneJulyAugust, have merged to form The Black Comet Club Band named after a JJA song 'The Black Comet Club'. The band consists of the following lineup:

 

Tetsu Takano (vocal / guitar)
Koji Kaziwara (drums: The JJA, ex-Redrum, Human Tail)
Hajime Sato (piano: The JJA, opening, MAOW)
Hiroyuki Kazama (drums: nil, Hansom Kyodai)

Masaru Kobayashi (bass: nil, ex-SADS, The Cro-magnons)

nil and TheJuneJulyAugust has played a gig together a few months back where both bands performed on stage which most likely planted the seed for this new merged band. A website has been opened so it looks like this will be a serious project and not just a one-off for a festival:
http://theblackcometclubband.com/

Some song samples from both JJA and nil:

 

 

[carddass 273]

The Black Comet Club's self titled 1st album will be out on October 7th on CD and in limited edition vinyl.

 

1st full album 2015.10.7 Release
『THE BLACK COMET CLUB BAND』

完全生産限定アナログ盤付属CD同時発売

 

1.Party Song　

2.Hide&Seek　

3.No.9　

4.Jolly Roger　

5.Soma　

6.Odyssey　

7.VAGABOND

8.Running Bird　

9.BANDEIRA　

10.ALL ILL　

11.BWY　

12.Little Light, Big Shadow

The first song was posted on Afro Skull Records youtube page. It's got a Miyavi-ish vibe to it.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Well that was kinda repetitive as hell, but at least the sound is kinda cool. Cautiously looking forward to it I guess...?

[violetchain 912]

New album already? That's the Tetsu I know and love. Couldn't believe he hadn't announced a release for this band yet when I first saw this thread.

 

Not crazy about the song, but I'm cautiously optimistic as well since it seems like the album is going to be more upbeat than THE JUNEJULYAUGUST's releases. I hope this band leans more towards nil, tbh. The only JJA song that left any sort of lasting impression in my mind was 少年兵 - I can't remember a thing about any other song I've heard from them.

[carddass 273]

Yeah, I love all things Tetsu and since he can do no wrong in my book, it's a passable song. However if this came from anyone else I'd probably be less than impressed.
I think alot of the problem with Tetsu is that he comes out with TOO many albums and probably doesn't give much creative meandering before going into the studio.

Early on in nil, he would perform some songs live for 1-2 years before actually recording which always gives a song more flavor and details.

Last year he released three albums in a row practically (Zigzo, The JuneJulyAugust and nil) and contributed a few tracks to Indies Denryoku. It was great as a fan of his but no single album was amazing like the early Zigzo and nil albums used to be. You can imagine if he condensed all of his creative output into one album it would be a classic.

So, being that he hasn't done much this year, perhaps the other tracks on this Black Comet Club Band will fare better.

And for me, his work on JJA's albums were more thought out and interesting than what he's been doing with nil in recent years where I can't really think of any tracks I replay often.

The JJA song 'Sequence' is probably my favorite thing he's done in the last 5 years.

 

Some other JJA tracks that I can recommend to new fans:

 

My Funny Car (single version)

 

1st album [fukaku mogure]
Goo Girl
fujuu no megami

 

2nd album [Edelweiss]
doumyaku

tekitou desu

 

3rd album [Paradise]

ruten

Paradise
Sequence

 

btw violetchain, I just saw your translation work and it's great work! I'm always attempting to translate zIgzo / JJA / nil songs for my own understanding, so it's nice to read lyrics of tracks I have never done.

[violetchain 912]

^Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way with Tetsu. I let a lot of mediocre stuff slide because his style is so charming, but yes, nil hasn't been very good recently at all. I listened to the first two JJA releases around the time they came out, but nothing really grabbed my attention. I don't hate it, but it's just not really my style of music.

 

I lied when I said the only JJA song I liked was Shounenhei, though. ruten was okay too.

 

I think my favourite thing Tetsu has done in the past five years is actually ZIGZO's THE BATTLE OF LOVE. I like TRUE IMPULSE quite a bit too. The songs aren't quite up to the standard of their first few albums, but i think they're a lot more memorable than the stuff he's been producing on his own. (Although that's probably because he didn't write it all himself) I agree that he's probably been stretching himself too thin recently with all these projects, and I think he must have realized that too since he's decided to merge nil and JJA into one. Hopefully the rest of this band's music will be better. But, then again, it's Tetsu, so maybe he just has two more projects lined up or something and needs to free up some time.

 

Thanks! My Japanese is really bad, but I'm happy to hear that. I like seeing the way other people interpret the same songs sometimes too (it helps me check if I've gotten something horribly wrong...).