Musica Obscura 1: Uplift Spice

This is going to be a series on obscure or relatively unknown bands/artists from around the world that I think should be better known. I’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while but just never got round to it. After talking to @poeticsnake and @thebugiq last Friday I thought "what the hell". They provided me with the name for the series Musica Obscura which may or not be a good name but I’m lazy and well ....meh ....blame them if you think it sucks :D

My taste in music is quite eclectic. It varies from rock to classical thro pop and jazz to punk, dance and ambient so if you don’t the music in this post it doesn’t mean you won’t like the music in future articles.

I’m starting with a band from Japan mostly because I lived there a long time. The stuff that most people know of falls into cliches of JPop or Visual Kei however there is an enormous underground scene with a lot of talent flying around. It's rather sickening that it gets ignored or squashed. Incidentally if you are a musician and ever ever go to Japan you really should go to a rehearsal room. They are totally different to Europe or the Americas. No damp cellar or railway arch with an ancient backline. Every thing is shiny, new and errr wow.

Ok enough beating around the bush let’s get to the band. This is Uplift Spice who were around from 2005 to 2014. It’s power pop/punk. This first track is probably their most well known and is called Omega Rhythm.

The nucleus of the band is Chio and Yūkii, the singer and guitarist who have known each other from high school in Kyoto. There has been a couple of drummers and bass players but it is pretty clear that they weren't replaced because they were bad at what they do. There is some phenomenal bits of playing on many of their tracks. I mean check this track out .....I can play bass but sheesh...

They were based in Tokyo but are not very well known in Japan. In fact their biggest market was France and they split after their last French tour. A year later Chio and Yūkii got back together to form another band called Musmus but somehow something was just missing. The songs just don’t seem to fit Chio’s voice and would be better suited for a guy singing them. I’d still go and see them live though.

The drummer in that :D