GutterPutter

Dos Monos are a Japanese hip hop trio from Tokyo whose rise to fame stems largely from their inventive approach to the genre. Having known each other since high school, the three members in Zo Zhit, Taitan, and Botsu a.k.a NGS initially rose to notoriety on the back of their eccentric use of jazz instrumentation. Many of their songs tend to take on a more hardcore aspect in that they are proud of their skills and, at the same time, their flowery languages pave way towards comparison made to abstract rap. At the time of writing, they have built a quiet, yet formidable reputation of themselves for their unique style with the backing of their label Deathbomb Arc and talent agency Earth Agency.

Dos Atomos is an album that, as the title seemingly implies, is inspired by Japan’s unfortunate history of being the only victim of two nuclear bombings. The Bandcamp page alludes as well to the constant motif of the sun and how the country’s pop culture is moulded by its go-to symbol’s polarising inference as the nuclear, “artificial sun”. This manifests in many ways with the references to Godzilla in ‘MOUNTAIN D’ through Zo Zhit’s rapping, the postmodern apocalypse in ‘QUE GI’, or ‘ATOM’’s unhinged account of the dangerous world that rose out of the atomic bombings. Virtually all of the songs are rife with mentions of Japan’s iconic franchises or characters as if to highlight the permanent changes that rose out of the country’s post-war development. 

The rapping in general is decent, yet its focus on pop culture to highlight the significance of the nuclear bombings can feel overblown. ‘KIDS’ tries to portray the abrupt change in lifestyle in the process of growing up under the prospect of working for your nation. Yet, the references to Vision Creation Newsun by Boredom and the rather abstract references to AD/DC and Animal Crossing is off-putting. Such a similar comment can be brought up on ‘BON’, ‘DATTO’, and ‘UNDO’ where the attempt to portray what should’ve been a sense of living in an urban hellscape feels overwrought to a fault. It feels too much more like screeching out a whole bunch of nothingness to try and work up to form a coherent theme.

The major boon to Dos Atomos lies in its rap rock/metal production. Usually, the group tends to stick with a more discordant style of jazz rap where the samples add to the eccentricity of their musical artistry. Here, it’s been displaced more with staccatoed guitar riffs, glitchy snares, and atonal notes which not only compliments the complicated relationship between Japan and nuclear power, but it simply makes Dos Monos stand out more. In the likes of ‘HAROU’, the minor-keyed synths add a certain tension to the trio’s rapping which sets the album into motion that makes it feel epic. ‘HI NO TORI’ sees the riff go on the stop-start kind of bar that persists throughout the whole song even if its sequence of notes might change. Alike to Black Midi, the unpredictability suits the track well as the heavy metal riff runs contrapuntal to the auto-tuned vocals.

Such a chaotic, yet wildly vivid production continues to shine bright even as its stylistic changes for a moment beyond just rock or metal. ‘COJO’ is perhaps the most exciting addition in Dos Atomos as while the trio raps of the feeling of conformity within consumerism, the instrumental is as abrasive and machine-like as industrial rock. It has a certain dynamic punch that is adamantly difficult to ignore and it’s this difference that makes for a welcome left-turn in the whole album. ‘INU’ sees Dos Monos return to their strange jazz instrumentation, yet the brass horn deepens the chaos that could be felt in the hardcore affirmation for greatness. The accompanying trumpets, played at a lower octave, makes the dissonant textures soar even higher. It’s a good way to end the album at a superficially confident, yet ultimately cynical note. It’s as if Japan’s bravado might set its society on a path towards self-destruction.

Dos Atomos is in many ways as explosive as its title tries to hint. Set with its themes on nuclear potency and its legacy on Japan, the references to many of the country’s media icons can be considered as being haphazard in its execution. The trio’s rapping might have a certain enthusiasm in them, yet they might not have helped to deter from covering up the more out-there references in the album. With that being said, the production is nothing short of exceptionally suitable as the use of rap rock allows the contrast in feelings surrounding the country’s history after the two atomic bombings. The discordances within the tracks echo hard in a way that befits the rapping. For fans of Japanese hip hop who want something that’s out of the box, this might well be a record worth looking into.

3.1/5