Review / 200 Words Or Less
Otoboke Beaver
Love is Short

Damnably Records (2017) Andy Armageddon

Otoboke Beaver – Love is Short cover artwork
Otoboke Beaver – Love is Short — Damnably Records, 2017

To put it mildly, Otoboke Beaver's Love is Short doesn't beat around the bush, though that phrase seems wildly inappropriate given the origin of the band's name. Following a churning title track that sets off immediately at breakneck speed and features aggressive foreign-language vocal shouts, shrieks, and howls, even -gasp- a bit of melody, the album transitions to the more playful “Introduce Me to Your Family.” Here, back-and-forth vocal outbursts between the four bandmates play out over a slick bassline, but the more relaxed and sometimes almost sugary sections are book-ended by furious guitar-driven chaos. The EP finishes off with the noise punk romp “Mean,” which rips and grinds through all of 20 seconds. Irresistibly jagged and compellingly "different," Love is Short's only downside is explained by its title: the five-minute run time is almost painfully short. That said, it's gonna be complete insanity when this energetic Japanese group, who may literally be the antithesis to the flashy and polished world of J-pop, gets around to putting together a US-release full-length.

Otoboke Beaver – Love is Short cover artwork
Otoboke Beaver – Love is Short — Damnably Records, 2017

Related news

Otoboke Beaver's Super Champon

Posted in Records on March 5, 2022

Recently-posted album reviews

Alien Nosejob

How A Mosquito Operates
Anti Fade, Iron Lung (2026)

The one-man band of Alien Nosejob continues to crank out short, angry hardcore in quick bursts. I've lost count of how many records Jake Robertson has now released under the name. I'll just say that while the first couple took some direction changes, the project seems to have found its footing in 1980s-influenced hardcore. With 17 songs in 24 minutes, … Read more

Cancer Bats

Give Me Dirt
Marshall Amplification PLC, New Damage records (2026)

ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS – “Bright Eyes of Gold”, “Give Me Dirt”, “Long Tooth”, “Fools Like You” Almost exactly two years ago, on 8th August 2024, Cancer Bats played Conne Island in Leipzig – a choice they would live to regret. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the centre had slowly become renowned for its radical politics and, more recently, the ban … Read more

Tyler Sonnichsen

The Dead Milkmen
J-Card Press (2026)

When I saw The Dead Milkmen at Toronto’s Diamond Club back in the late 1980s, the floor was a volatile, beautiful mess of colliding subcultures. It was like different species of house flies bumping into one another, wondering what the hell you were doing in the mason jar. You had suburban high school pocket-pen-protector pencil-neck nubile nerds, college radio snobs … Read more