ONNA - Katawa

The musical alter ego of obsessive pointillist underground cartoonist and illustrator Keizo Miyanishi, Onna have been in varying liminal stages of musical existence/non-existence since the early 80s. Their bleak and nihilistic no-wave downer sound riveted the Tokyo scene of the time -- an early line-up featured a pre-White Heaven Michio Kurihara. But after a couple of years and just one single, the group faded back into silence, becoming the stuff of rumor and faded memories. It was kind of shocking then to have a reformed Onna suddenly doing the rounds of Tokyo clubs a year or so back. After a couple of CDRs and an acclaimed appearance on Tokyo Flashback 6, Katawa is their first album in well over a decade. Detuned and fractured psychedelic blues filled with a bucketful of abject fear and personal loathing -- topped off with some of the most strikingly original vocal mannerisms in the Japanese underground. A fantastic return. --Alan Cummings