Maybe you clicked on this because you already know the tune; maybe you don’t know it but clicked anyway because what rational person doesn’t interact with an image of an Alpine A310? If you’re in the latter camp, I’m jealous of you because you’re about to hear Boom Boom Satellites’ “Push Eject” for the first time.
“Push Eject” is the first single off the Japanese big beat/alt rock duo’s first album, 1998’s Out Loud. Out Loud, which happens to feature a Group 5 Alpine A110 on the cover. How could you not like these guys?
Even if you subtracted the retro rally imagery from the equation, you’re still left with shimmering chimes atop relentless percussion, chords that sounds like they’re tearing the space-time continuum with their abrasiveness and Michiyuki Kawashima’s irreplaceable high-register growl. A delicate balance of aggressive, yet spacey. I was never lucky enough to see Boom Boom Satellites live, but I imagine it must have been the loudest show ever.
I never will. Kawashima tragically passed away in 2016 at age 47 after years of suffering from brain tumors. He recorded at minimum the duo’s final two albums, Embrace and Shine Like a Billion Suns, all while fighting the illness. Masayuki Nakano, the other half of the group, continues making music today under a new project called The Spellbound. Long live Kawashima, and long live this incredible song which makes me desperate to hit the Shuto Expressway in a ’70s French sports car.
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