You Can Be My Wave

Ever since the release of Super Champon back in 2022, brazen Japanese hardcore punk/riot grrrl band Otoboke Beaver have been keeping busy. They've been relentlessly touring, even securing a couple of high-profile opening slots for some of rock's most legendary acts in their local market. Even a lineup change didn't slow them down as ex-Shonen Knife drummer Emi Morimoto quickly took up the throne when Kahokiss decided to leave the band to pursue starting a family. While there hasn't been any new music during this time, the band did grace us last year with not one, but two live albums that perfectly showcased the band's boundless energy and impeccable synchronicity. After nearly four years without new music, Otoboke Beaver finally dispelled the drought with a very brief, playfully antagonistic, three-song EP.

Clocking in at just under the length of a typical pop song, this EP doesn't signal a drastic sonic pivot. Instead, it kicks up a similar whirlwind that the short, chaotic bursts that were found on Super Champon. I Don't Need to Be In Your Strike Zone is a rhythmically incongruous opener that immediately disorients with its jarring, stop-and-go passages. Hey, Where's the Thank You? moves at an even faster clip while leaning heavily on the screeching guitar work from the band's firecracker, Yoyoyoshie. The highlight, however, is the title track. It serves as a fine example of the band's 'genre-less' ambition by cramming one stark stylistic transition after the next. It begins with a blistering thrash-punk assault, pivots into a brief psychedelic cooldown, and culminates in a rhythm section breakdown that features surprisingly sweet backing vocals that demonstrate that the band still possesses some pop sensibility.

Otoboke Beaver has established a reputation that they'll always deliver pulse-elevating, fun music, and this EP certainly reinforces that. While it doesn't feature their most mind-blowing material -- I do wish Hirochan had a stronger presence on the bass -- I'm certain the band is saving their best stuff for the album. It's also possible that Is the New Album Out Yet? isn't so much a teaser as it is the end of a chapter given that this release features the last of Kahokiss' drumming. It will be interesting to see if Leo's (Emi Morimoto) studio album debut will mark a new sonic direction or if the transition will be so seamless that it will just be business as usual.