"KAIJUICE" Various Artists
CD Review -- 9/21/05
By: Eric Bresler, Director/Producer, Otaku Unite!

Kaijuice is a double disc compilation featuring 36 tracks from 29 artists. It has a Japanese vinyl robot/monster toy theme, which may sound limiting but actually allows for a wide variety of both artists and audiences. The concept of Kaijuice could instantly appeal to a toy collector, anime kid, sentai fan, or gimmicky music geek (i.e. me). So in an informal manner let's listen to the album track-by-track and find out if the music complements the concept and if the package as a whole is worth picking up.

Disc One
1. Kick in the Pants "I Wanna Be Japanese" -- Kick in the Pants sound like a late-90s West Chester pop-punk band. Moving on...

2. Gelatine "Shin Yohka" -- Gelatine are based in NYC and feature a Japanese female vocalist as well as our buddy Al from the Spunks on drums. This song is really good, especially the keyboards. Rock and roll regression with a traditional tint. Score one for Kaijuice.

3. Meatbee "Transformers [Theme]" -- Meatbee are from Australia. They do a loungey cover of the Transformers Theme. Moving on...

4. The Robotic Subwaymen "Go Go Mechabot" -- Very fun electronic sentai theme song homage (or parody?). Lots of robot vocals.

5. Stratos "Go Bot Go" -- Generic electronic music. Sounds like the soundtrack to a car commercial. Sorry Stratos.

6. Exit Mindbomb "Godzilla Will Rule You" -- Parts of this song are really good, almost Cornelius-esque. But the vocals sound like Stabbing Westward. Remember them? I didn't either until I heard this song.

7. Lorraine Bowen Experience "Space" -- If you like P5 or Fantastic Plastic Machine you may like this song. It definitely sticks out amongst the other tracks.

8. Daikaiju "The Final Phase" -- So good. Moody, surf-tinged instrumental. Part-Man...Or Astroman?, part-Mogwai.

9. Super Cutie Baby Monster "Mothra" -- When I read the band name I skeptically thought "Live up to that name, c'mon, I dare you". And they did.

10. Kinoko "Return Flight" -- This is good, simple, YMO-esque electonica. Score one for Kinoko.

11. Switch 3 "Tiny" -- Sweet pop-punk that sounds like...early Unwritten Law, maybe? Certainly nothing that dates back before 1994. Cute song that gives a shout-out to G-Force.

12. Zerozillian "Close Loop Control" -- Sounds like Daft Punk doing a video game soundtrack. But I guess they always sound that way. If you want to see why Daft Punk rule then watch Interstella 5555 directed by the guy who did Star Blazers. Its awesome.

13. Jedi Superstar "Go Go Robo" -- Did you see Trekkies 2? There were some bad Star Wars-themed bands in it. These guys are better then those bands were, but not by much. Moving on...

14. Robot Goes Here "1001010" -- This one's a toss up. Vocals that sound like At The Drive In one minute and Saves The Day the next set to an ongoing electronic beat. MTV would love this band. For a minute.

15. Minya "Kaiju Lullaby" -- Minya is a breath of fresh air on this disc. Moody, atmospheric, folky rock. I wish this track was longer. Score one for Godzilla's offspring.

16. Luke Miller "Juno" -- I bet Brian Eno fans would like this guy. So would fans of other boring musicians. Pow! Score one for me!

17. Alphaomecha "1954" -- I was worried about this track because Alphaomecha has been E-mailing me lately and I didn't want to hurt his feelings in the event that I didn't like his music. But this isn't bad at all, it sounds like NIN with Atari sound effects thrown in. Good work.

18. Secret track -- Samples of ATHF's Mooninites set to electronic music. The internet will love this track.

Disc Two
1. Andraculoid "Conquers the World" -- Awesome, awesome band name. Dark, synthy music for people who own the Black Box.

2. Creeping Cruds "Stomp Tokyo" -- Aggressive punk/bar rock. Not bad at all.

3. Atomic Raygun Attack!! "This Means War" -- Y'know how Attack Of The Show has a live band play every Friday? These guys would be perfect for that gig. Geeky, cute, lo-fi rock.

4. Styles of Beyond "Your Command" -- Hipity hop set to the Gigantor theme song. Sticks out like a sore thumb on this compilation. I love that expression.

5. Qyphtone "Saturday Night Special" -- The only Japanese artist on the compilation. Sounds good to me, like a low-budget Polysics.

6. Kinoko "Q Bert" -- Remember the Q Bert cartoon? That was a weird show.

7. Robot Heart Attack "Rubber Costumes of Doom" -- I just Google image-searched the Q Bert cartoon. Man, that show was weird.

8. Exit Mindbomb "Megatron" -- This is nice, electonic/classical fusion with some great moments of white noise. "You know I hear a lot of talk, so I'm headed for the stereo store, to get a white noise maker and turn it up to ten". I'm going to listen to Frank Black when I'm done with this review.

9. The Robotic Subwaymen "I Wanna Be A Robot" -- I take that back, I'm going to listen to this track again. The chorus reminds me of Plastics' "Now I Wanna Be A Plastic" chorus. I wonder if these guys have heard Plastics. They should, I bet they'd like them a lot.

10. All You Can Eat "This Die-Cast Metal Has Life" -- This is good, it sounds like something my girlfriend would listen to. She's been listening to a lot of Big Boys and Jawbox lately. Not that these guys sound like those bands, I was just letting you know. And Sparks, we're always listening to Sparks.

11. Boy Versus Bacteria "Monster Boy In Wonderland" -- Beautiful Nintendo-based electronica.

12. Simon Hutchinson "Moog Monster" -- This is OK. Obviously influenced by some of the more visible Japanese noise bands out there. I actually just watched the Moog documentary the other day and was very disappointed. It kinda sucked. You should watch the Theremin documentary instead, its excellent.

13. Xenocanon "Fuchikoma" -- This is funny. For some reason it reminds me of the music that was played at the beginning of the Mortal Kombat movie when Sonya storms into that dance club. Judging from the lyrics this song is tongue-in-cheek anyway, which automatically excuses any criticism so lets move on...

14. Future Wars of the Future "Amazing Grace" -- Um...lets move on...

15. Jhimm "Dispair" -- Stop/start electronica, its just fine.

16. Pilots of Japan "A Song to Reverse Time" -- Nice, indie rock sound. A bit Pavementy. I saw Pavement. Did you?

17. Stratos "Terror Strike" -- Stratos is back! This reminds me of the last track on the Postal Service CD that I always turn off. Sorry Stratos.

18. Ghosts in the Machine "NDMX" -- This sounded like Stratos at first, then started to sound like Xenocanon, then I got up to get a soda.

19. Luke Miller "Epic-taph" -- Remember that thing I said about Brian Eno? That was in reference to this guy. This song is pretty nice though.

So there. I just changed my laundry and am now ready to reflect on what I've heard and whether or not I liked it. I remember hearing a lot of electronic music, some good, some not so good. I remember the very nice Minya track and the fantastic "Mothra" song. Daikaiju were also quite memorable. The Japanese toy theme was expanded through the music to include anime and television shows as I predicted and it all held together pretty well. I'd say more than half of these tracks would be a good soundtrack to play with your toys to. Or to stare at your unopened packaged toys to. Whichever way you do it. Is it worth the $20 to pick up? If you like electronic music then most definitely. Hopefully these guys will offer a bit more diversity for the next volume, which I'm sure will be released someday since overall this is a very good compilation.

[Note to Kaijuice gang: You can take the above sentence, "I'd say more than half of these tracks would be a good soundtrack to play with your toys to", and take out the first part to create "...A good soundtrack to play with your toys to", which to me sounds like a great quote.]