Praise For Wallflower.com | Indie Music Blog

Today's post may be a bit more obscure than any of the other groups I've mentioned in the past. I say this because not only are they very unknown, but they are also from Japan. Because of these two facts, I personally have not been able to dig much up about them other than the fact that they go by the name nhhmbase, which translates to "nirvana" in Japanese - even though none of them have ever been fans of the well known American classic Nirvana. I discovered these guys about a year ago while browsing the & Records site, which is also home to a number of my favorite groups (i.e. Owen, Her Space Holiday, Plus/Minus). What instantly captured my attention to these guys was there use of incredibly difficult time signatures. In nearly every track they have they manage to perform with some pretty odd time signatures. With the exception of this, they are basically just a pretty simplistic rock group, putting out records that sound like they were probably self-recorded. They manage to pull off "simple" pretty well however - especially when accompanied with their singer's melodically soothing vocals (albeit in Japanese, it's still catchy). Below is a video from their first EP entitled 9/8 - which obviously corresponds to the time signature that it is in. Below that is also a brand new track from their 2008 release "Hamon Cross" and is a great example of their simple, melodic, rock mannerisms.



"Coin Game:"



THE SKINNY: nhhmbase is a simple, yet powerfully talented Japanese rock group
FAVORITE TRACK: "9/8" off of "nhhmbase EP" (2007)
APPROPRIATE FOR: Anyone looking for something entirely new
FOR FANS OF: Complex time signatures, Plus/Minus