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Mikabomb
The Fake Fake Sound Of Mikabomb, 2001
Label: Damaged Goods
Available on Amazon

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Girls in the Garage

Warning: this music contains the Asian girl power manifesto, “We are the yellow superwomen, gonna kick your @$$”. If that didn’t get your attention, you better check your pulse because The Fake Fake Sound Of Mikabomb is girlie garage rock at it’s best, sexy lyrics dashed with a bit of sarcasm and heavy on the attitude mixed with well placed riot girl distortion. Be prepared for an early 80’s New York post punk meets Motor City girl group sound and maybe just a taste of the band X on Magic Boots (Livish Version). This is an enticing assortment of English speaking ear candy treats by Mikabomb, a London based band formed by Japanese born Mika Handa in 1998.

The line up here is  …
Mika Handa … vocals
Agi … guitar / backing vocals
Mika Kanayama … bass
Ergi Ahmed … drums

“We are the yellow superwomen”

Mikabomb’s musical alchemy works better on some tunes than others, other being Snake And Crane for instance. Which is why short songs are always a good idea. Some slight selective editing or deleting, would have kept out some of the redundancies, helped the overall album and allowed the A list material to shine that much more.

CD artwork is a homage to the punk designers secret weapon, the Xerox machine, it is most effective on the CD disc face itself. Also a major oversight is that the whip smart lyrics are not included in the CD booklet.

1. Garage Super Stars, time: 2:03

2. Hey Man, time: 2:45

3. Contact Tokyo, time: 2:23*

4. Super Sexy Razor Happy Girls, time: 2:32

5. Stick Around Jo, time: 2:46*

6. Heart Attack, time: 2:23*

7. Super Honda, time: 1:47*

8. Armageddon, time: 3:03

9. Never Gonna Push Me Around, time: 2:10

10. Underwear, time: 2:34

11. Love Factor Five, time: 2:29

12. Snake And Crane, time: 2:17

13. Magic Boots (Livish Version), time: 2:54

14. Sweet Peach, time: 3:09

15. Don’t Say, time: 3:14*

16. Yellow Danger Babies (Livish Version), time: 2:01

The hard to choose best of the bunch are:

Heart Attack … a fun, infectious mix of cartoonish vocals, sassy lyrics and fast paced body slam pop with possibly the coolest thing ever recorded at 1:33.
Super Honda … the shortest song also has the most get-up-and-dance vibe.
Don’t Say … a real departure from the rest of the tunes, a slower more delicate and solemn number with definite Motown girl group sound influence.

The Take Away:
RiceburnerFM.com recommends The Fake Fake Sound Of Mikabomb, the debut album by Mikabomb. So all aboard and have your tickets ready because despite a few rough patches along the way, this is an amazing audio thrill ride.
Available from Amazon.com!

video courtesy youtube / texasdaveodell

photos courtesy flickr / garry32owen