MUSIC REVIEWS

unWIRED Rating:

Abingdon Boys School

Some would note the name “Abingdon Boys School” as the name of the institution where the members of Radiohead came together as a group. Yet, this is also the name of a Japanese rock music group that was formed in 2005. A tribute? I certainly think so, but I’ll come to that point later. As of October 17, 2007, it is the name of their album debut - and the subject of my latest album review.

The band itself is composed of 4 gents, the front vocalist is none other than Nishikawa Takanori. Yep, Nishikawa Takanori of T.M. Revolution fame, and as most would know T.M. Revolution as his solo project, for singing numerous anime themes-including “Heart of Sword” (Rurouni Kenshin ED theme), “Invoke” and “Ignite” (Gundam Seed/GSD OP themes) among others. The remaining members are SUNAO (guitars); Shibasaki Hiroshi (guitars) and Kishi Toshiyuki (synthesizer). All are wickedly talented, as shown by their first album and the singles associated with it.

I first knew about a.b.s. when I heard them on the Love for NANA tribute album some time back, so yeah, you can say my introduction to them was more or less an association with NANA but not directly. “Stay Away” was a great track with promising leads to the band. And I wasn’t disappointed when I heard their self-titled album.

It’s different if you’re coming into the band from knowing Nishikawa’s work with T.M. Revolution, the stylistics of his moniker there were more in the pop/rock/electronic perspective, but a.b.s. is definitely J-rock in every form, and actually it’s one of the J-rock albums I’ve really come to like overall, with only a few rough patches in some tracks. Every track, though, has something stand out about it, from the Darker than Black OP track “Howling” to their version of Buck-Tick’s “Dress” (Trinity Blood!!!) to a track that really blew me away when I first heard it: “Down to You”. The album itself is quite good, and if you love J-rock, I’d encourage you to give this a try. I think it charted at #2 in its debut week-so way to go guys!

Jerry Coria