Review: Japanese Cartoon - In the Jaws Of the Lords Of Death

Janine just sent us her review of Japanese Cartoon's first album In the Jaws Of the Lords Of Death. Check it out below!

“Punk’s greatest impact, however, was to show how decrepit and out of touch popular music had become” - My So-Called Punk -…Mat Diehl

The sound of thousands of indignant young people, across the nation and abroad, striking the keys on their computers while signing “The Release Of The Lasers Album” petition must sound a lot like the screeching voices, drum kicks, electric guitar riffs and the overall sophisticated garage-like sonic quality of Japanese Cartoon’s “In The Jaws of The Lords of Death”.

ITJOTLOD marks the first released project from independent Punk band Japanese Cartoon, which includes principal member Wasalu “Double J” Jaco also known as Lupe Fiasco. The album has struck a chord with many listeners.

A week after the release of ITJOTLD, an online petition directed toward Atlantic Records that demands the release of Fiasco’s third studio album “Lasers” surfaced on the net.

It is not clear whether or not the creator of the petition was inspired to take action after hearing the JC project. What is clear is that there is a rambunctious energy of revolt circling around the music of Fiasco and his team.

The greatest success of the Japanese Cartoon project is that it highlights the historical roots of resistance in music like Punk Rock and Hip-Hop.

With throaty “Fake British Accents” and lyrical black power references the vocals of ITJOTLOD feel like a wonderful cross between Malcolm X and Malcolm McLaren. Lyrics like “but a mind filled with hope/makes it easier to cope/ so that you don’t feel the rope/ as it sneaks around your throat/til they throw you from the oak” make listeners feel like they are getting a musical American history lesson charged with so much electric energy that they can still dance to it.

A list of social issues is tackled within the framework of the album. It brilliantly pulls off a general feeling of angst and frustration that can be felt by middle class young people in the suburbs of the mid-west or the kids situated in the dilapidated tenement buildings of New York City.

Shohei Otomo created the sharp, unsettling image of the album cover, which helps to filter the narrative of the songs through a particular lens. While listening, the characters and setting in the lyrics come to life in black and white images with flecks of a certain shade of grey that can be likened to the color of clouds that hover over head on the worst days.

Each song has its own charged conscience charm. Yet, the last song “Gasp” punctuates the project with the ultimate song cry of our generation, the sounds of this song feel like lonely teardrops falling on a crowded city street.

Apparently, JC is working on their next album. And of course young people are working on their next stage of protest, like the online petition. Maybe this time it will be brought directly to the doors of Atlantic Records. Whatever the outcome is, we will not lose, because we are not losers. We Are Lasers. - Janine Simon