LOVE & ROLL – Gitogito Hustler (Gearhead)
Here’s another winner for fans of flat-to-the-boards punk-pop with chirpy chick vocals. It might not broker a Middle East peace plan or save your life over the course of its 32-plus minutes, but it 
should put a spring in your pogo and bring a smile to your face.
Gearhead honcho Michelle Haunold first clapped eyes (and ears) on the Tokyo quintet at US music industry meat market, SXSW, in 2004 and signed them before you could say “sushi roll”. It doesn’t take long to work out why.
Opener “Love and Roll” gets along on a machine gun beat and sharply-articulated guitar that stings as well as laying down the mandatory buzzsaw bed. Yago (no surnames) sings in her native tongue but has a clear, resounding vocal that busts the language barrier. Frankly, she could sign the Tokyo phonebook and I’d be none the wiser. “Silent Man” would still be as catchy as a cold on a round-the-world JAL flight and I’d be inebriated on those little bottles of spirits before we got halfway to Kyoto.
There’s the usual direct hereditary line from the Ronettes/Shangri-Las/Donnas/5678s that every critic worth his/her salt will quote. (Insert your own all-too-obvious reference point here.) What sets the Gitos apart from many of their contemporaries is the Yago-Mitsuko twin guitar axis. These girls can thrash away with the best of them but can take it back a peg as well and add some colour and expression. More power to ‘em.
Gitogito Hustler don’t just do fuzzy buzzpop (“Maybe Love”). “Mt Fuji” incorporates a dirty bassline into jokey stop-start speedcore, while “It’s So Easy” is a mid-tempo rumble on the floor toms with faintly psychobilly guitar licks. (It’s a good ‘un; look for it on a karaoke machine near you in the near future.) “Puzzle” is a distant cousin of a Hard Ons song whose name I can’t remember right now (check back when I’m sober).
I have a sneaking suspicion that the (English language) colour of “Locomotion” has been vari-speeded (or else Alvin Chipmunk dropped by the studio to contribute guest vocals) but I’ll cut Gitogito Hustler some slack on that one. “Love and Roll” does run out of steam towards the end - “Spherical Mass” loses its way big-time and the lilting closer “Rapo Rapo” sounds like an ambling outtake - but you can’t have it all.–
The Barman
1/2
Read the review of their "Gito Gito Galore" EP here.