REIZOKO Cj DARKSIDE ALBUM REVIEW/RANT

REIZOKO Cj DARKSIDE ALBUM REVIEW/RANT

Full Darkside Album

This is one of those albums I WOULD KILL to hear for the first time again. As Darkside was not only an essential influence to my own musical and artistic style, but because it is straight up the most ridiculous and hyperactive glitch-fest I have ever had the pleasure of discovering. This album’s very impressive 83 TRACKS SPANNING 4 HOURS is a cornerstone in the breakcore genre and still holds up as a top dawg in today’s mashcore scene. 

People with at least some break core knowledge might check out this album thinking that they’re in for a few more uninspired lolicore tracks. While this project is full of a wide variety of anime samples and does fall under the lolicore umbrella, Darkside retains a unique character and personality. Something that many mash core artists don’t give much thought to. This comes from the fact that at the time of release in 2012 this was one of if not probably THE MOST extreme mashcore album to date, many would say the same today over 10 years after the release. Darkside along with Cj’s past works spawned an entire new genre of music called reizokocore/reizokore that has a small but active community online today. Your chances of ever meeting someone in real life who knows anything about this genre is very low… Artists like 96-Glass, J-CORE SLi//CER, Dz’Xa, Katagiri, and more artists (particularly from Japan) are keeping this niche and one of a kind sound alive. I dabble in the reizokocore style as well. These artists push the genre to new heights with their unique style and clearly neurodivergent flare, they avoid falling into the slew breakcore/mashcore/lolicore tunes that are indiscernible from the last and the next.

Despite being most well known for its considerably deranged high speed mashcore mania, Darkside has more up its sleeve than just fast chops and anime samples. Much of the album consists of dark ambient tracks and more experimental productions. These songs suit the album’s cover art very fittingly as well. Darkside’s cover is two panels from the Manga BLAME! I’ll probably make an entire blog post about this manga, but if you haven’t checked it out I highly encourage you to, as there’s no manga like it. BLAME! blew my mind and inspired me heavily. Darkside’s, more ambient sections make great background music to play when reading BLAME! and I love that consistency between the album’s tracks and cover.

Another aspect of this album that makes it so beautiful, is the amount of remix tracks and bonus tracks from other artists. Darkside is like a blend between an album, a compilation, and Cj’s dump for a bunch of short unfinished tracks. I’ve seen some people online criticize this album for being too long, which is understandable considering the 4+ hour length. I wouldn’t recommend trying to listen to the whole thing in one sitting, especially if you don’t have much experience with breakcore or having severe ADHD. The sheer amount of content in Darkside is part of what makes it so special, just like the music itself, the track list provides you with a plethora of songs to jam out to. It’s not particularly organized and most artists would have split it into multiple projects, but Reizoko Cj isn’t more artists. I think that the ridiculous amount of tracks on this project elevates the uncompromising overstimulation that darkside crafts so well! 

Let’s get into some of my favorite moments on this project, one of the first being the track t + 2. The song opens with a really bouncy metal snare drum part over some frantic chops that go straight into an absolutely wild touho song chop, not sure exactly what song but I am pretty sure it’s a touho song of some sort (which you can find many of in Cj’s works). This song is super hyper and ends with a sample that’s as silly as it is unsettling.

Sakamoto Ryoma probably has my favorite intro on the album and some of my favorite drum chops, I love playing this song in my sets, I mixed it into a 96-glass song at one of my last shows and it went hard.

The next track  Fanteucpx[zv is a short but sweet banger as well with some very fun touho sample chopping and some of the most absurd mashes on the project.

All Your Base Are Belong To ME is one of the best tracks on this project for sure with some of the best sample choices and most unpredictable arrangements, This track has a great part to drop in my sets too!!! It’s hard to mix though, all of these songs tend to be that way. But that won’t stop me from trying ;3

My favorite remix on the album is Kyou1110’s AutoproReizouko - Core Slicer. This track starts off slower and quite spooky and makes its way into a gnarly remix of one of my favorite Cj songs, that being I'm bydło J-Core Slicer. This song ends with probably the harshest part of the whole album, check it out if you like extra tone (like meeee ^_^)

Something I must touch on as well is the Arcrei’s Computer tracks. Arcrei is Reizoko CJ but under a different name. These tracks are more lofi and less hyper than Reizoko tracks, but maintain Cj’s signature jittery sound. I’ve never listened to any other producer who can make such calm and atmospheric music that’s full of dozens of samples and constant chops/glitches.

There is another alias that Cj goes by on this album too, and that is Silicon Life. The Silicon Life tracks are more similar to Arcrei’s Computer than Reizoko. Often being listed as a collaborative some with Acrei’s Computer, Silicon Life tracks are often more atmospheric and some of them are very long spanning up to 26 minutes. 

What truly makes darkside such a one of a kind project is its lack of respect for any kind of norms within music. This project is most well known for its uncompromising breakcore blitz, which in and of itself is impeccable, but offers the listener so much variety across its 4+ hours of music. Reizoko using multiple aliases over the course of the project is super cool and I love the additional bonus tracks and remixes. Darkside offers such a deep dive into the unconventional side of electronic music production and I truly think that anybody who loves electronic music needs to check this album out. Darkside was a great final present for Reizoko Cj to leave us with. It’s debated whether Cj is alive and simply stopped making music in 2014, or died (potentially from  the Russo-Ukranian conflict, as Cj lived in Ukraine). Cj’s legacy lives on over 10 years later, as his influence on the break core community is undeniable. Go check out #reizokocore on Soundcloud and you’ll find new multiple new tracks coming out every month inspired by Reizoko Cjs creativity!! Long live Reizoko Cj.

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