Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2010

Courtesy of P-Vine Records ©

“A 21st Century Marquee Moon!” squeals the publicity blurb for Carbide, as if copping moves from Television’s 1977 art-punk opus was an original idea. Still, if you’re going to be derivative, you could at least do it as convincingly as this quartet of 40-something fellas from Kumamoto. Ishiatama-Zizo’s second album is replete with brittle rhythms and interweaving guitar lines that would do their NYC forebears proud (though Katsunori Akutagawa’s vocals make Tom Verlaine sound tuneful in comparison). Album centerpiece “Yuuhatsu” clocks in just shy of the ten-minute mark, affording ample noodling time for the band’s two axe-gods without ever quite reaching the heights scaled by more psychedelically inclined rockers on the Japanese underground. It’s the shorter, scrappier songs like “Chirin” and “Wai (Y)” that are the most fun, and which come closest to rebutting charges of copycatting.