Zazen Boys

Zazen Boys took shape as a side venture for Mukai Shutoku, guitarist and vocalist of the alt-rock band Number Girl, its name drawn from a Buddhist meditation practice that gave Mukai space to pursue more varied and experimental impulses while his main group reached mainstream breakthrough. Once Number Girl disbanded, Mukai reactivated the project, elevating it to higher critical and commercial peaks and forging a vital connection between Japan's mainstream and underground music worlds.

The 2002 incarnation found Mukai supported by the experimental hip-hop/funk outfit 54-71, though his first post-Number Girl performances occurred under his own name alongside an assortment of players, notably the avant-garde jazz-punk band Panic Smile—early associates from his hometown of Fukuoka—and jazz musician Kikuchi Naruyoshi. Moving away from the Pixies-style alt-rock that had defined Number Girl, those shows fused jazz, funk, rock, and hip-hop, the resulting stylistic collision supplying the foundation for the revived Zazen Boys.

Mukai then assembled a permanent lineup around ex-Number Girl drummer Inazawa Ahito, former Art-School bassist Hinata Hidekazu, and guitarist Yoshikane Sou from Kicking the Lion. Together they recorded the self-titled debut album Zazen Boys, issued in 2004 and followed later that same year by Zazen Boys, Vol. 2. Both discs extended and refined the blend of funk, rock, and traditional Japanese cultural elements first sketched in Number Girl's final album Num-Heavy Metallic and further tested in the post-Number Girl live shows. Earlier punk leanings gave way to an emphasis on heavy, crashing guitars that recalled the work of Led Zeppelin. Other signature traits include pronounced dub, hip-hop, and soul influences; frequent time-signature changes; and Mukai's rapid half-spoken vocals interrupted by sudden falsetto bursts.

Inazawa left in 2005 to launch the more new-wave-oriented Vola and the Oriental Machine and was replaced by Matshshita Atsushi for the Himitsu Girl's Top Secret EP and the uncompromising Zazen Boys, Vol. 3, released in 2006, on which the band pushed its experimental tendencies even farther. Another change occurred in 2007 when Hinata departed, succeeded by Yoshida Ichiro of Nine Days Wonder. The new configuration released the single "I Don't Wanna Be with You," which surprised listeners by placing a minimalist funk foundation beneath a glossy, synth-led 1980s sheen. In spring 2008 the group traveled to the United States to record fresh material, resulting in Zazen Boys, Vol. 4, which appeared in September of that year.