Kuro - Who the Helpless + 10 Tracks

Artist: Kuro
Title: Who the Helpless + 10 Tracks
Release: 2005
Label: SS Recordings

Track List:
1. X / 絶望 (Zetsubou, Despair)
2. Human Gas
3. Body
4. Who the Helpless
5. Selfish Cow
6. お前だ (Omaeda, You) / OiMaeda
7. No More No
8. A.N.P.R
9. Lightning Breaks
10. Furniture Fire
11. Dead Heat 10000V
12. Hey! Hey! Hey!
13. Midnight Baby
14. Jag Out
15. Top Less Go
16. Jag Out (1983 Gig)
17. Top Less Go (1983 Gig)

Kuro (whose name simply means "black" but is written with 白 (shiro), the kanji for "white" for reasons I don't know) played a type of very fast bass heavy hardcore that is now pretty distinctly Japanese. That isn't to say bands elsewhere around the world haven't done things in the same way, it's just that Kuro really helped get it all started and as such it's no wonder that sound is so heavily associated with what one thinks of when discussing Japanese hardcore.

This CD is a collection of all (to my knowledge) of kuro's records that they put out in their relatively short lifetime (1983 to 1986, I think). The only bad part about it is that it isn't any longer. Even including the live songs it's barely 36 minutes.

Speaking of the live songs, I have a very strong suspicion that Kuro's recorded output doesn't do their live show justice. When I first heard the last couple of tracks I thought the screams were added in into the recording but since watching some of their videos on youtube I'm not so sure anymore.



This encode I did myself from a beautiful FLAC rip of the CD that I was able to find (you probably can too if you can use google). I didn't think reposting the FLAC rip itself was necessary since V0 mp3 is pretty much just as good. Major kudos to the dude who remastered this though, since that's where the real bottleneck for sound quality lies, especially with hardcore from the 80's. I dunno if he worked with the master recordings (I doubt it) or if it was remastered from the vinyl but it sounds as good as one would expect from a punk band during that time.

I did manage to find the official site of the record label that put this out. If you've got ￥2,940 (about $32.33) lying around you might want to see if you can get them to ship internationally. It looks like they do mail order only so good luck.

I couldn't find album art larger than a small thumbnail for this so I just used the best I could find for the original "Who the Helpless" record.

Tracks 1-7 from "Who the Helpless" 8" flexi (1984, Blue Jug Records)
Tracks 8-11 from "Fire" 7" EP (1986, KPP Records)
Tracks 12-13 from "Pinch & Ouch!" compilation (1985, KPP Records)
Tracks 14-15 from "Kuro" 7" flexi (1983, Blue Jug Records)
Tracks 16-17 from "1983 Gig" 7" flexi (1986, KPP Records)

All tracks digitally remastered by Kotaro Kojima at Flair.

Download: Kuro - Who the Helpless + 10 Tracks (LAME 3.98r V0)