Review Summary: Superb album by a band that while coming from a Radiohead influence, lead the style to another step, when doing a rusty and hypnotic feel of melancholy.
The Japanese band downy (which is spelled with a lowercase 'd' to differentiate it from other bands with similar names) has a very singular sound. Not only does the band brings the Indie genre through unexplored grounds by experimenting inside the alternative- rock feel, but it includes a cold, different kind of sadness that is shown through unique electronic percussive sounds and added atmospheric textures. Sometimes you find yourself wondering how they created their unique strange sound; perhaps through the mixing of hypnotic guitar or keyboard riffs, or through the smoothly but sometimes apocalyptical vocals of Robin Aoki: a very talented vocalist that lets his emotions seep into his music without exaggerate that. All downy albums are called mudai, what means "untitled" in English, theirs albums, while having serious similarities are all pretty different from one another. Mudai [3] is my favorite one, for having great songs, in a very well done sequence.
When you first listen to downy, your first thought is that they sound a little like Radiohead, which is a band that also experimented a lot with the Indie genre and with sad and melancholic sounds there and there throughout their career. downy, however, neglects to mimic the sense of drama you get from listening to a Radiohead song due (maybe) to Tom Yorke's vocal style, and also tends to be a lot more melancholic and cold, which is shown throughout some of their music videos. Their videos, which can easily be found on YouTube, the band also has a member just to make these videos, due to their imagistic sound, the video Zen being the most memorable example.
The album starts with the remarkable song 'Tetsu No Fuukei', which has a video clip to go along with it. At the very beginning, you experience the rusty sound and feel of the starting riff along with an electronic beat. After a few seconds, the bass line- which is very marked and has a bit of a swing to it- emerges from an indescribable dissorted sound that pauses here and there. The vocals come next: smooth, cool, and melodic. All these were remarkable, but what really called my attention was the sound at the bottom of each verse. The sound was similar to that of an old abandoned machine moving for the first time in years. I really felt a cold, almost abandoned vibe from it all. In my head I saw visions of broken antennas that cause black and white noise. This was a great song to begin the album because it is both catchy and chilling. In conclusion, downy had a very notable capacity of immersing you into an immediate, image provoking atmosphere from the very beginning of each song. The images and feel you experience are cold, dark, wet, and moldy; but oddly, in a very enjoyable way.
The second song, 'Anarchy Dance', is the most apocalyptical song in the album, with a pounding drum accompanied by a heavy bass sound, while the guitar work, keep taking you ahead, till it comes to the chorus, the most apocalyptical and dense part of the song. It's a great song, very atmospheric and dense, and the video clip is worth seeing too. Next, come 'Jojoofu', a softer and less complex song, that in the very dense context of the album, fits very well. It has some weak characteristics, as the always present cymbal, that may be annoying to some attempt listeners, but in a general way, still a great song, with a highlight to the vocal lines, very beautiful again.
'Keijijogaku' brings a more reflective sound, Robin Aoki comes with a vocal line that seems like he is talking more than singing, with specific notes modulated at the end of phrases, it has a strong bass line, and sometimes some sounds that remember a medical equipment. In a general way a very hypnotic song. 'Akatsuki Ni Te' has a harmony much like a pulse, that suddenly stops sometimes, letting just a guitar riff, with the drums, what creates a cool efect when the distorted guitar comes above again, the vocal here is more whispered and seems like a talk too, in a softer way than the anterior song. It's a more weak song in the album context, but it doesn't makes you bored anytime. After a short interlude just called [ ], which brings spoken words with a more ambient like feel and weird sounds as well, comes 'Tsuki', the slower and softer song in the album, there are a lots of noises that makes you imagine a big white room, where people are moving things on the floor, but you just can hear the echoes of this movement, without seeing anyone. 'Tsuki' has vocals softer than any song, and it goes based on a nice bass riff, till it comes to a strange and glitch beat that brings a nice guitar riff together, but it stills ambient-like till the songs ends.
'Zen', the next song, is the very highlight of mudai 3, to me at least. It's the most hypnotic and melancholic song in the album. Since it starts, the listener is taken to a place where's not conformable, but even this way you feel like if you are calm and relaxed, looking at things that are starting to fade out in a rotten feel, the electronic beat is very well fit, and it got some weird noises, which sound like rats to me. That song is very well worked, with textures and reverb effects, and has beautiful lines with several voices together in some moments and a very calm melody in others. For me the best song in the album! It ends with some kind of mantra with a mix of bell sounds, and with the hypnotic riff that is extensive through all the song keep working till your mind has melted away.
The last song of that album, 'Meitei Freak' is the heavier and has the most aggressive vocals of the album, it counts with a saxophone too which fits really well in the principle riff of the song. The riffs are really creative, yet simple, and the guitar keep doing a great atmosphere touch while the sax freak out at a solo. It's a good end to the album, when heavier and helps to wake up from the Zen "meditation". Just to remember, that Meitei Freak was first publicized in their first album, Mudai [1].
To end, Mudai [3] is a superb album, and a must to the listener which likes to trip in a not comfortable way sometimes, and a good listening for any Radiohead kind of music fan, as for some post-rock fans (in a less majestic and sober way). downy leads it into another step of concise and well composed melancholy.
