Biography
Japanese psych-rock outfit DMBQ channeled the frenetic intensity of Tokyo's acid-rock underground while fusing that scene's excessive sonic approach with heavy echoes of British and American hard rock classics. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s the group maintained a relentless pace, issuing more than a dozen LPs, EPs, and compilations of their distortion-saturated material, maintaining an exhaustive touring schedule, and moving between independent and major-label affiliations. The sudden loss of a member in a 2005 tour accident led to an extended pause, after which the band resurfaced with the 2018 double album Keeenly, issued via superfan Ty Segall's God? label.
Established in Sapporo in 1988, DMBQ relocated to Tokyo in 1990 and integrated into the local underground community. The founding roster featured vocalist Shinji Masukoin, guitarist Touru Matsui, bassist Ryuichi Watanabe, and drummer Yuka Yoshimura, formerly of OOIOO. The musicians developed connections with similarly unconventional acts such as Guitar Wolf, the Boredoms, and Merzbow, who gravitated toward DMBQ's explosive stage presence. Their 1995 debut, Dynamite Masters Blues Quartet, issued by Less Than TV, first spelled out the group's acronym; the follow-up EXP appeared the next year, and in 1997 they contributed to the noise-focused Digital Catastroph compilation alongside Violent Onsen Geisha.
DMBQ sustained a steady output that eventually secured a major-label deal with Sony's Japanese subsidiary Parco in 1999. Their 2001 remix collection Resonated included reworkings by Buffalo Daughter and Boredoms member Yamantaka Eye. After completing 2004's Esoteric Black Hair, Yoshimura departed and was succeeded by Mana "China" Nishiura, ex-drummer of Shonen Knife, who performed on the 2005 release The Essential Sounds from the Far East for the American garage-rock imprint Estrus.
Later that year a highway crash involving the band's touring van during a U.S. trek proved fatal for Nishiura. Following a period of recovery, the remaining members enlisted drummer Shinji Wada and resumed live activity on America's West Coast. More than ten years passed without new recordings until November 2018, when the expansive double album Keeenly appeared.
Established in Sapporo in 1988, DMBQ relocated to Tokyo in 1990 and integrated into the local underground community. The founding roster featured vocalist Shinji Masukoin, guitarist Touru Matsui, bassist Ryuichi Watanabe, and drummer Yuka Yoshimura, formerly of OOIOO. The musicians developed connections with similarly unconventional acts such as Guitar Wolf, the Boredoms, and Merzbow, who gravitated toward DMBQ's explosive stage presence. Their 1995 debut, Dynamite Masters Blues Quartet, issued by Less Than TV, first spelled out the group's acronym; the follow-up EXP appeared the next year, and in 1997 they contributed to the noise-focused Digital Catastroph compilation alongside Violent Onsen Geisha.
DMBQ sustained a steady output that eventually secured a major-label deal with Sony's Japanese subsidiary Parco in 1999. Their 2001 remix collection Resonated included reworkings by Buffalo Daughter and Boredoms member Yamantaka Eye. After completing 2004's Esoteric Black Hair, Yoshimura departed and was succeeded by Mana "China" Nishiura, ex-drummer of Shonen Knife, who performed on the 2005 release The Essential Sounds from the Far East for the American garage-rock imprint Estrus.
Later that year a highway crash involving the band's touring van during a U.S. trek proved fatal for Nishiura. Following a period of recovery, the remaining members enlisted drummer Shinji Wada and resumed live activity on America's West Coast. More than ten years passed without new recordings until November 2018, when the expansive double album Keeenly appeared.
Albums
