Short But Sweet, Polite And Respectful #43

Featuring Tokyo’s Narcia, Shah Alam’s Piri Reis, Jakarta’s Rightness as well as Child Meadow and Les Mauvais Jours from France, it’s quite a French / Asian instalment of Short But Sweet, Polite And Respectful. Expect four top-notch releases - one better than the other.

Hailing from Toulon, emo punk duo, Child Meadow, are quite busy these days. Right before their South-East Asian Tour they released two split records with Appletop and Malaysia’s emoviolence highlight, Piri Reis. As regards the latter collaboration, it’s quite a no-brainer to make a huge recommendation. Child Meadow consists of Pietr and Clément, both playing in bökanövsky and Grand détour, and for their common project with Arwith, Amira, Farhan, Jaka and Fakhri, they recorded three tracks in the vein of classy french screamo, once performed by bands such as Daitro or Amanda Woodward. Egged on by the French twopiece, Piri Reis is able to deliver another three absolutely amazing tracks, which may be the best works since their 2015 demo, as each of them excels due to the flawless combination between chaos and guitar driven melodies - emoviolence as good as it gets.

With Noah being back home in the States and Shutaro Shinkai filling the vacant spot on guitar, Narcia from Tokyo, are taking a different direction on their recently released sophomore Extended Play, as their sound pattern receives a shoegaze-ish note, now lying somewhere between Title Fight, Bloodthirsty Butchers and Mineral - a progression, stirring up the curiosity of the band’s future. Following their blistering debut, 18 & 16, contains two new songs as well as a live version of nine.

"I could hear your chest heaving like we'd run for oh so far and in the middle of the night felt you tossing and turning. But that's just for now and no longer feeling like home for a little while. Just for now and no longer."

After Sport, Les Mauvais Jours are the next promising emo punk group from France. The four-headed band, which consists of members from Another Five Minutes, More Dangerous Than A Thousand Rioters and The Boring, is based in Strasbourg and delivers a fresh, indie-focused, sound on their demo, for which they recorded two brilliant songs. Packed with moving melodies, the debut of Matth, Simon, Tak and Seb, is a real gem and with Familiar Faces the band surpassed themselves, releasing one of the best-written songs of the past months.

"Is this the call of fun, or a visceral need for a breath of fresh air? Is this road going somewhere? The horizon is the reason we pack our bags and leave it all behind. Can you learn something new from reading the same old book over and over? There’s something in the air tonight, looks like we’ll be alright, tonight. Unload the van, reload our hearts with smiles and hugs. New friends, familiar faces. Laval, Rio, Rokycany, Nantes, Lille, Paris, Milan…"

Based in Jakarta, Rightness are offering - according to their own words - an aggressive interpretation of hardcore punk, which apparently has its roots in chaotic 90s hardcore, once obtained popularity under the label screamo. Folks who are into bands such as Heroin, Swing Kids or Antioch Arrow likely will dig the noisy sound of the Indonesian duo as well since each of the ten songs out of their 2016 debut record seems to be fallen out of time. With Halfway Boys the record also includes a cover of Washington-based 80’s hardcore punk band, The Mighty VOID. Sounds promising, ha?