Japanese post-punk band
OXZ formed in 1981 and lived out the '80s making their own breed of music equally informed by the frustration and angst of punk and the darker, gothy moods of new wave. Both styles were evolving rapidly during the early to mid-'80s, and
OXZ danced around their nexus point.
Along Ago: 1981-1989 collects the group's complete discography, as well as several unreleased demos. During their lifespan, the band released several EPs and a few spare compilation tracks. The earliest of these, a four-song self-titled EP from 1984 finds
OXZ at their most raw, with rougher production highlighting the clash of ideas their best songs were made up of. The clunky riffing and jittery drums of "Teenage B" are more in line with the no wave movement happening in downtown New York just before the group formed, but they quickly transition into a chorus full of anxious pop melodies. Though the song is just over four minutes,
OXZ fill it with as many ideas as possible. Three unreleased songs taken from a cassette supplied by the band occupy a similarly unpolished space. These demos include the tense vocal harmonizing of "Boy Boy" and a more distorted, grungier version of "Etranger," a song that appeared in a slower, more
Joy Division-like reading on a flexi disc release in 1985. Never quite aggressive enough to be hardcore, never quite gloomy enough to be post-punk, and more complexly constructed than both,
OXZ lived in a wiry space all their own. By the time of their final EP, 1987's
And Blue and Bleed, they were experimenting with new styles yet still unable to land on anything even remotely predictable or even easily classifiable. That EP's "Orgel Bony" is a piano-driven boogie that sounds like an alien show tune, but it still manages to devolve into a creepy breakdown of harmonica and eerie vocal harmonies. The collection is an excellent and remarkably complete document of
OXZ's boundless approach to punk. Imposing no rules on themselves, the trio came up with sounds that contained threads of various movements happening around them, but ultimately sounded unlike anything else. ~ Fred Thomas
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