Dué le quartz - Jisatsu ganbou

Dué le quartz

自殺願望

2000/05/29

1. ウタカタノ…夢？

2. Monochrome

3. 卍搦め

4. 4月1日花畑にて…

5. 自殺願望

I feel like this band is one of those rare cases where all the stars were aligned and, even if only for a brief period of time, something magical happened that can never be replicated ever again. This short but sweet mini album is a testament to that.

Rewind to a lazy late summer afternoon in 2004 when a young Jigsaw first stumbled upon some music videos marked 'J-rock' and 'visual kei' on a now sadly defunct website. Among those was a quirky song called "Rodeo" with an instantly hitting guitar hook and a group of guys with colorful hairdos posing down the streets of Tokyo. A powerful introduction. I made a note of the mysterious band name and gradually found out more about them ("Disbanded... great."), including that half-loveable half-annoying dude Miyavi who could make the guitar sing like nobody's business, but man, did he release some polarizing solo records! But I digress.

Back in Dué le quartz, Miyavi was iconic as a guitarist and songwriter to me, always crafting juicy little melodies, killer riffs and backing rhythms that seemed to twirl and morph into each other fluidly. Even though some of his motifs can be traced back to certain points in VK history, the total package that he and the whole band presented was uniquely them. The impressive guitar antics propped up by the agility of the bass and the playfulness of the drums makes every track memorable, especially on this early mini album.

After a moody music box intro the opener kicks things into gear with its fast tempo, even hitting us with a one-two punch of drum-and-bass solo highlights. The next song has a bit of everything: starting with an upbeat swingy rhythm followed by a Latin beat which then transforms into a proto-VK heavy metal gallop by the end. The rest of the mini album is standard aggressive visual kei fare with call-and-response screams and menacing atmosphere, until we arrive at the crown jewel, the title track. Written by bassist Kikasa for a change, it's the perfect sendoff with guitar leads to die for and clever rhythmic arrangements framing singer Sakito's anthemic vocals (and if you happen to own the 2nd press of the mini, there's a not too shabby live version as bonus track).

It really doesn't matter which release you choose because almost all of Dué le quartz's short discography is pure gold, but I think this is a good starting point that shows all the members' skills. One cannot help but wonder what could have happened if they had stuck around longer... but such is the ephemeral nature of visual kei.