Turning It All Around

[PV] VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE - Turning Turning

Newest PV from VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE in support of their newest album "SA-KA-NA ELECTRIC DEVICE". This song demonstrates pretty well what the main changes that have been made from VOLA's previous sound, as the entire album is filled with a much stronger emphasis towards a synth-based, new-wave dance rock and moving away from the post-punk twin-guitars that had drawn me to VOLA in the first place. If I had known that they were going with this before I had seen them back in June, it might have made seeing them live a little less disappointing as most of their set was filled with the new songs off this album. But, yeah, ultimately, all I can say is that it's different. I know people say that change is good, but in my opinion, it's not necessarily better or worse in this case. Just different. Take it as you will.

As there isn't too much of significance that has been going on with me as of late (yet), I've decided to talk about something I forgot to mention in my last post. I found out last week that the Japanese band SPARTA LOCALS had announced they were going to break up next month. Initially, as with many other fans of the band, this came as quite a shock as the band was apparently in the midst of recording a new album. Many people believed that the future of the band was looking bright. It seemed like they had recovered from losing one of the founding members, drummer Akihito Nakayama. They had a pretty successful return to indie grace as they released a generally accepted album "Leecher". They had just toured the US for the first time this year, with SXSW's Japan Nite Tour. Plus, judging from my experiences with seeing them live in Japan, it seemed like they would go on for a good number of years. But, it seems like the exit of Nakayama has caught up to them. While the band has not released an official reason for its breakup, it was pretty obvious for everyone that the essence of the band changed a bit after his departure. Whether for better or for worse is debatable, but, regardless of opinion, one of the premier bands in the Japanese indie world and one of the first Japanese indie bands I got into is ending. We can only hope that the members of SPARTA LOCALS will find other promising projects to join or start.

-REG