G&P review: GridLink

GridLink
Amber Gray
Hydra Head
You have only one question, if you’re anything like me: Is this the second coming of Discordance Axis? The short answer, no.

While GridLink, Jon Chang’s latest grind outing following seven years of silence since DA’s legendary The Inalienable Dreamless, superficially traffics in the same microbursts of rabid grind that were his former cohorts’ stock in trade, don’t mistake this twitchy beast for a guy rehashing his salad days.
All caffeine and wasabi, cyberpunk tropes by way of Masamune Shirow manga and PlayStation RPGs, GridLink carries over many of Chang’s favored themes, but set against altogether burlier music, an earthier, rawer assault than the silicon smooth Discordance Axis
Despite a few similarities, GridLink emerges as its own critter in just a few listens to this 12 minute, 11 trackm which neuroshock takes its name from British cyberpunk Neal Asher’s 2001 debut novel, a rather hackishly written mash of William Gibson retread and Dune space opera notable only for an alarming prevalence of grammatical errors in a professionally edited tome. (Seriously, were all the good Snow Crash references already taken, Chang?) But none of that matters when the spiraling, receding riff that closes the Final Fantasy VII-inflected “The Jenova” invades your ear holes and starts overwriting your DNA.
Where Rob Marton’s riffs were slick grindcore starfighters, guitarist Matsubara’s songsmithing is far more insectile and predatory, angular lower register assaults studded with spikes and gnarls. Under that, drummer Bryan Fajardo favors staccato patterns with copious snare drum rolls. As always, Chang’s vocal scrapings, staying well in the upper octaves the whole outing, cut through the racket like the death wail of a rusted out mech.
After spending the better part of the last decade dabbling in anime and video game production, Chang has found the will to grind again, may the Matrix be praised. GridLink, like the molar loosening thrash piss take Hayaino Daisuke that proceeded this year, prove the man still sits atop the roster of hot shit console cowboys running cyberspace.

The Dirty (Baker's) Dozen 1: Discordance Axis

Discordance Axis
The Inalienable Dreamless
Hydra Head
2000
Perfection.
America stood rigid in awestruck carbonite for a few days in 2001. And for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with disaffected Middle Eastern men who unfortunately take their imaginary friend’s advice about air travel. Maybe The Inalienable Dreamless’ impact was quite as seismic culturally as the Sept. 11 attacks, but Discordance Axis’ farewell platter reverberated throughout the grindcore underworld. Seven years after their demise Discordance Axis still stands as the almost Platonic ideal of grindcore
Siege laid the groundwork, Napalm Death gave the scene a name and a defining sound, Carcass remains one its most beloved progenitors, but Discordance Axis perfectly embodies all that grindcore was and everything it could be. If I could only introduce somebody to grind through one album, it would be The Inalienable Dreamless.
Just as America was about to embark on a pair of poorly conceived wars, Discordance Axis left the trappings of grindcore history – rants against military and political shenanigans that had gone stale in the 14 years since Mick Harris thumped out the first blastbeat.
Lead off track “Castration Rites” hands you your nuts in a minute burst of piranha blasts, midalbum standout “Jigsaw” sputters and starts like a warped bit of machinery and penultimate bruiser, the aptly titled “A Leaden Stride to Nowhere” delivered just that, a five minute trudge unlike anything the band ever put to tape (with the exception of the space opera “Berzerk” on the three way split with 324 and Corrupted).
Instead of cliché ridden diatribes Jon Chang’s confident lyrics stripmined Japanese culture, particularly manga and anime, using cartoon metaphors to cloak weighty meditations on loneliness, insecurity, despair and paranoia, crafting an intensely personal brand of grind that has yet to be even equaled let alone surpassed.
Though The Inalienable Dreamless is arguably the greatest burst of grind set to silicon (hell, I’m arguing it right here), Discordance Axis just never cracked the wider metal scene to garner the attention they deserved. But that quietly building cult status may be part of the band’s charm and enduring appeal. It’s winning the golden ticket to tour Chang’s neon lit demimonde.
Of all the bazillion bands and kajillion albums Dave Witte has put his name to, he told me this is his favorite when I interviewed him recently. That’s about the best endorsement you’re gonna get.
“I never had a spiritual connection with a guitarist like I had with Rob [Marton],” he said. A lot of times we’d be jamming and stop together. We were feeling each other out.”
Unfortunately, Marton would develop a nerve condition that would make him extremely sensitive to loud noises – like a top flight grind band jamming in a practice space or shredding a stage during one of their sparsely attended shows.
Though Marton has since recovered and even jammed with Witte, the drummer said the guitarist has little interest in diving back into music full time, so The Inalienable Dreamless will stand as both the band’s tombstone and its milestone.
“I wish the mix and recording was a little different,” Witte said but quickly pushed aside his own quibbles. “That was such an amazing experience.”
"I Will Live Forever – Alone” Chang morosely announced on the back cover of the album’s unique DVD box packaging. He had the first part right. Grinders will be turning to this timeless album for inspiration for decades to come. Discordance Axis will indeed live forever, but the band will be surrounded by adoring fans and far from alone.

Off the Grid: Jon Chang talks anime, new album

For a while we thought grind had its very own Chinese Democracy in Amber Gray, the difference being we’re pretty sure GridLink’s debut wouldn’t, you know, blow dead goats for quarters.
But grindcore’s resident otaku (and we mean that in nicest possible way) and emoticon enthusiast, Jon Chang, assures us GridLink is alive and well and only months away from dropping its debut, one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
“Art is the only thing left to finish,” the former Discordance Axis frontman assures us, but beyond that, he’s keeping the project under wraps.
After seven year musical hiatus following his former band’s colossal The Inalienable Dreamless, Chang is about to tear our eardrums a new one with 11 tracks of twitchy, scattered, Japanese inflected sonic goodness.
Chang et al managed to invoke the musical equivalent of comic book convention in downtown Akihabara with Discordance Axis. But Amber Gray, tentatively scheduled for an April or May release via Hydra Head is not merely DA 2.0. Teaming up with ex-Mortalized guitarist Takafumi Matsubara, Chang has crafted a new approach, fusing his trademark vocals with longer, thrashier songs, giving him larger palette to work with.
“Songs have a very Matsubara sound, which is very technical metal influenced,” Chang said. “Art is very different than DA as are the lyrics. There is commonality, but I already wrote those songs. Now I am writing new ones. :)”

One of the delays has been coordinating trans-Pacific recording schedules and closing GridLink’s revolving band member door.
“Matsu flew [to New Jersey] to record. [Drummer] Bryan [Fajardo, Noisear/Kill the Client/ Phobia] flew to NJ as well,” Chang said. “We actually finished mixing over 3 months ago. We're still finishing the art and we've also had Hayaino Daisuki coming out as well (Matsu and me in a thrash band).”

Aside from “Naked Pieces Scattered” on Discordance Axis’ Our Last Day CD and Amber Gray’s title track on the band’s website, the fanboys and –girls have had little to tide them over in the intervening years. Part of that was due shakeups within the band.
“Terada [drums] was unable to focus on GridLink so he bowed out of the recording. Okada [bass] also experienced a similar situation,” Chang said.
Now with a steady lineup, skinsman Fajardo wants to let the music do the talking.
“All I can say is that this release will have no shortage of blistering blast beats,” Fajardo said.
For liner note nerds, one of the joys of Discordance Axis albums was the wealth of explanatory notes, offering a peek inside his influences from film, animation and literature. But until Amber Gray actually hits a turntable near you, he’s keeping his direct lyrical inspirations a closely guarded secret.
“Those will be revealed in time. :),” he said.
However, he did have a few suggestions culled from his personal library for those determined to wring the most out of the new album.“I've been reading Neal Asher [author of Gridlinked] a lot lately,” he said. “In terms of anime I've been enjoying Welcome to the NHK and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. They are wacky but there hasn't been much in the way of good sf anime IMHO. Flag is ok. The new Votoms series was a piece of crap.”

Being the consummate cartoon connoisseur, it seems a natural Chang, who ran Studio Grey – part of Echelon Software – would try his hand at animation. However, his project, Scratch Trigger Era, a hyperkinetic, cell shaded romp through the neon drenched prism of Japan’s gnat-like attention span has been, well, scratched for the time being.

“We're temporarily holding on that while we focus on our game development,” Chang said.

That and dropping an obvious contender for best grind album of the year.

“I hope it lives up to your expectations. ^_^” Chang said.

The Unofficial Jon Chang Reading List

I don’t know if the United Duchy of Geekdom has ever thought of naming an official ambassador to the outer states, but if it does, Jon Chang has got to be in the running. The Discordance Axis/GridLink vocalist has done more than just about any other underground figure to scour through the best of comic books, science fiction, role playing games and Japanese cartoonery and present them to the target audience.
His exhaustive liner notes on the Discordance Axis album not only gave an insight into his lyrical and conceptual influences but name dropped some of the 20th Century’s more interesting thinkers.
Join me on a tour of the fractured mediascape that has inspired some of Chang’s most insightful art.

Philip K. Dick inspired many of Discordance Axis’ songs, and Chang swiped the title for Jouhou’s “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said” from the PKD novel of the same name. The congenitally weird science fiction scribe’s trippy 1974 novel follows television star Jason Taverner as he wakes up one morning to find the world doesn’t know who he is. As Taverner tries to get a grip on his altered reality, we learn life as he knows it is all the delusion of one drugged out woman. Whoa.

Frank Miller’s (300, Sin City) gritty four issue miniseries, The Dark Knight Returns, along with Watchmen, grimed up comics in the 1980s, introducing complex characters and probing the twisted psyche of not only the villains but the supposed heroes. In this reinterpretation of Batman, Miller revisits an aging, bitter, quasi-retired Bruce Wayne as he watches Gotham circle the toilet of gang violence. Jouhou’s title track was inspired by the fate of Harvey Dent/Twoface, who has spent the last decade getting a thorough psychological going over on Wayne’s dime only to relapse back into crime.

Chang has some great taste but even he will admit to enjoying the occasional clunker. Case in point, 1989’s Allen Smithee-directed fromage fest Gunhed. The low budget singularity-inspired Terminator rip off live action mech film referenced in Ulterior’s “Wheels Within Wheels” follows a bunch of tech scavengers as they run up against a severely mean spirited computer that has decided humanity is no longer necessary. Though it inspired a decent song, the film’s dialogue and special effects, in Chang’s own words, will make you “squirm.”

Masamune Shirow is an icon among devotees of truly insightful science fiction manga and anime. Chang has also repeatedly cited the The Ghost in the Shell author as an influence on songs such as “Dominion” and Appleseed,” both named after and inspired by his work. In between white knuckled action scenes, Shirow also manages to wedge weighty thoughts about the interactions between humans and the technology we think we understand and control. Dominion is set in a world where toxins have poisoned the environment beyond repair while Appleseed grapples with the rights of artificial organisms within human society.

And we simply can’t overlook that Chang’s latest project takes its name from limey cyberpunk Neal Asher’s debut 2001 novel Grindlinked. Chang’s staying mum on Amber Gray’s lyrical themes until the plastic platter is actually in our hot little hands hopefully this spring, but the novel deals with a government agent who slowly loses touch with his own identity after being linked far too long with an artificial intelligence. Fertile ground for Mr. Chang, indeed.