YOTSUYA KAIDAN is one of Ukraine’s prime rising screamo acts that’s been shaking up the local scene since 2014. Their new EP, released under Dog Knights Production and A Fond d’Cale Prod, engages listeners throughout the album by melting intense, heartfelt vocals with melodic instrumentation to a cohesive whole. Though the lyrics are in Russian, worry not, the emotion is undoubtedly well-communicated and along with the vinyl, there’ll be translations to English (see the content of the tracks below). They’ve previously released another elating EP, splits in collaboration with acts such as DET ÄR DÄRFÖR VI BYGGER STÄDER, KAT, a dynamic split between five bands, namely THISISMENOTTHINKINGOFYOU, HEALING POWERS, I HATE SEX, GHOSTLATE and have participated in “Invasion USSR” – a well-executed tribute compilation to ORCHID.
Vocalist and lyricist Valentine Lapshin on the tracks:
“The first song is something like a call/letter to myself. I address all the words to abstract “you” and speak about loneliness, depression and rejection of modern society. This is a rather long and painful monologue, the most sincere words that I’ve ever written. But instead of speaking in first person, I’m kind of talking with the listeners. After all, if they listen to me, they’ll find themselves in these lines.
The second song is retelling one perfect morning in my life. It’s about something very important and bright to me. However, the musical background creates a depressing mood. The idea of the track is that all good things fly swiftly like an arrow, while painful moments сreep slowly as a snail.
In this track I also refer to a poet Nika Turbina and use her poem about inspiration and muse by rewriting some of her lines.
The third song is about empty halls on screamo concerts. Even if no longer necessary, we continue to play until our fingers are bleeding on the strings. It’s a song about how I remember all the faces at the concerts and how for the sake of these burning eyes, we will continue!
Track “1995” lyrics are from a Soviet poetess Novella Matveeva’s poem about wind – description of a hurricane destroying trees and tearing off roofs. The fact of the matter is, that when I was 5 years old, my family travelled to countryside and came across a hurricane like this. I mix my own memories of this situation with the poem. At the end of the track, a violent cello sounds reflect the gusts of the wind.
The last track is a ballad about love, full of bizarre abstract metaphors.”
Artwork by Valentine Lapshin
Live in Kiev, Ukraine 2016
