Disclose: Yesterday's Fairytale, Tomorrow's Nightmare 12"

Disclose: Yesterday's Fairytale, Tomorrow's Nightmare 12"


Tags: · 00s · D-beat · hardcore · hcpmf · Japan · noisy · punk · raw · recommended
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Layer upon layer of noise and distortion, like ashes of nuclear apocalypse raining down. The final LP Disclose released, in 2004, captured the band at a high point. When other d-beat raw punk bands were running low on ideas, Kawakami reinvented the sound, incorporating more metallic influences like Broken Bones while still sticking assiduously close to the template. Originally released for Disclose's tour of the US west coast, 'Yesterday's Fairytale, Tomorrow's Nightmare' includes ten tracks and closes with a rampaging masterpiece, the 10-minute 'Wardead,' which exists on another astral plane from generic Discharge copyists.

Our take: Reissue of one of the high water marks of Disclose's "Disbones" period. I've always been really intrigued by this era of the band because I could never really figure out what they were going for... I've read that the "bones" part of "Disbones" is a reference to Broken Bones, but it's always been difficult for me to figure out exactly how these records are meant to be inspired by Broken Bones. Kawakami definitely changed up the guitar sound for this era of the band, but I've always thought of Broken Bones as having a very compact, crunchy, and traditionally metallic guitar tone. The Disbones era of Disclose, on the other hand, is even rawer and more blown out than the band's earlier stuff, with an over-the-top brittleness that comes off as almost post-modern to me. Perhaps it's splitting hairs to dissect the guitar sound on this record so much, but hey, that's what Disclose has always been about to me... about getting lost in the minutiae of the Discharge sound and tradition. It's almost as if each song implicitly asks the question, "what is d-beat?" Nowhere is that more apparent than the final track, "Wardead," which is more or less "Free Speech for the Dumb" played on a loop for ten straight minutes. And to answer my own question, yes, it's d-beat as fuck. I suppose that could be a big part of Disclose's genius... the ability to work both as intellectual fodder and as big, loud, and dumb punk rock fun. As with LVEUM's reissue of Tragedy, the packaging here is top-notch, with a nice tip-on style jacket. As a bonus, Yesterday's Fairytale features liner notes by Stuart Schrader that are kind of like a Behind the Music for the period surrounding Disclose's lone US tour, and they are essential reading in my book.