Antikythera Mechanism, the long-awaited first album of Japan’s first steampunk band, Strange Artifact, does not disappoint. It’s an eleven-song collection of excellent rock songs with musical twist and turns that easily set them apart from other J-rock bands.
MaRy’s unconventional melodic voice is a perfect addition to 130JET’s compositions. I would go as far as to say that the small imperfections in her voice add to the charm of the band’s sound. In a lot of bands, they would bother me, but with Strange Artifact it somehow works.
The music isn’t easy to label or clearly to define, but I can assure you it isn’t traditional J-rock. There’s some hard rock, straight rock, Gothic, EMB, and some clear avant-garde in there, mixing it up into a refreshing and original sound.
It’s all the more impressive you realize that this band is initially a two-person collective.
I also like the diversity of the album. It’s still a coherent package, but the lineup of the songs makes it interesting to listen to. The different tempos of the songs are mixed together well, making for an album you can gladly listen to over and over again without it getting boring.
It’s also a good showcasing of the band’s capabilities as composers and their musical range.
Definitely a band to keep an eye on, because if this album is anything to go by, they’ll be doing awesome things in the future and they could be going very far indeed.
