Tartan

Issue date: 3/24/05 Section: Entertainment

Kagrra´s Miyako album cover.

"The five of us wanted to do something different," says vocalist Isshi of his band, Kagrra. In days when Japan was overflowing with severely Westernized, baroque-infused rock bands, Kagrra members strived to be the first of their kind to successfully combine elements of their own culture's traditional music and the basics of rock. After captivating indie rock fans in both Japan and the underground American scene for several years, the band finally released their first major-label album, Miyako, in March of last year.

Kagrra (known as "Crow" in their earliest days) is a Tokyo-based band that has been in existence since the dawn of the new millennium. Izumi, the drummer, is noted as the band's leader and founder, and has been friends with the band's drummer Nao since grade school. Throughout their young life, both played in several rock groups together, and after Izumi met Isshi in college, they soon decided to start their own band. They put up some fliers in search of guitarists, and voila! Two young men named Akiya and Shin, both from the same band, replied almost instantly. All five of them had one crucial thing in common: nobody wanted to hop on the pro-European bandwagon. If they were to be different, they were going to turn to their own Japanese heritage. And in 1998, the band Crow, later to be called Kagrra, was born.

What separates Kagrra from its Westernized counterparts is its successful fusion of traditional Japanese instruments and melodies with modern rock music, and the incorporation of archaic language and beautiful, prehistoric imagery of Japan into its lyrics. This self-proclaimed "Neo-Japanesque" style can clearly be heard in Miyako, their first major-label album. This album tells a tale which takes place during the Heian period, the peak of Buddhism in Japan. Since its release, Kagrra has been keeping its fans satisfied with DVDs, several singles-two as recent as last February-and of course, plenty of live performances.

Here's a few of my favorite tracks of 'Miyako' with comments.

The low-key, eerie feel of Track 3: Incantation remains true to its title and pulsates with an entrancing, repeating bass line.

Kagrra truly shows off their creativity with their unusual, offbeat rhythm and beautiful, swaying bass in mellow Track 5: Nirvana Sutra. The song reaches a powerful climax and gently lets the listener back down to earth in the end.

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