EP: Kikeiji - "Plastic Scandal"

   Kikeiji was a punk band from Japan that played in the early to mid 1980s. Unlike many other well-known Japanese hardcore/punk bands from that time period, however, Kikeiji relies very little on 'noise' factors or any overtly obvious 'metal' tendencies; instead they hearken back to UK anarcho punk sounds, bringing to mind the Subhumans in particular. Much to my liking with this type of punk, the bass is well pronounced throughout the 4 songs on this release, originally put out as a 7" on ADK Records in 1983.
   This short release manages to branch a few different sounds within the general realm of what was going on in early punk: The first track has an angry-ska feel on some of the guitar parts that again, brings to mind Subhumans or maybe even Zounds if they were a bit more distorted, while the third track has a rock-fuck groove going on like an even more rollicking version of the Big Boys. The fourth track is the type of slow, repetitive, chant-like punk song that's almost post-punk but not all the way there, with fairly cool echoey guitar 'solo' middle parts to add to a sense of eeriness.
   This is a really cool release and I'd highly recommend downloading it if you can find it. I had gotten it from the blog 7inchpunk.com but that's been shut down it looks like. If you somehow come across some old Japanese punk records and this is in there, buy the lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL0JXZXBIpw