Yakuza

One Nation is a wiry, skeletal fidgety beast - in thrall to both the demented fuzz rock of Dinosaur Jr, and the gloomier, darker terrain of Joy Division. While the full force of Yakuzas' personality doesn't quite burst through, they don't have make a committed racket warning of it's approach

7/10 July 2004
- Colin Carberry - Hot Press

Yakuza just keep getting better. An album in the can, they are now focusing on new material, and it's threatening to eclipse their already stellar back catalogue. Tonight in Auntie Annies they take to the stage with most of the crowd already knowing how good they are. This is about mopping up the dregs. Interestingly, they've evolved from their grunge roots to take on more angular bands like Fugazi, while throwing in a handful of swamp rock. Okay, it doesn't work on paper, but trust me, you have to hear it. Notes are still garotted out of guitars, the rhythm section sounds like it is teetering on the brink of chaos, but Yakuza are taling their own sound and running with it rather than running with someone elses. It seems like the natural step, the rhythms are more intricate, there's fewer swatches of noise and more pointed brush strokes. And the tunes are still there. The old standards are taken out to wow the audience, but their point is made. Anyone who doubted this is one of the best bands in the country is arguing against an impenetrable wall of sound. The fact that they have developed so effortlessly, consolidating their existing legacy and maintaining their own high standards, is a rare thing. They leave the stage with the audience wanting more, and not for the first time this year, Yakuza leave an atmosphere hanging in the air. Lile you've actually just witnessed something important.

April 2004 - Phil Crossey - u.tv

"Yakuza do slice noise good. With notes and cherry bits"

from review of Smalltown America Records Public Service Broadcast Samper # 3

12th April 2004

- Peter White - drownedinsound.com

"Yakuza are LOUD!"

Oct 2002 - Everett True - Careless Talk Costs Lives

(translated from Spanish)

First disc from this quartet from Belfast that already we knew from their first demo. This surpasses without a doubt that scale model and it much more shows a mature band to us in form. It is not easy to define this sound but it thinks about the post-punk spirit of the thousand times mentioned latley Gang Of Four and the American influence of Dinosaur Jr and Superchunk. Intensity and a wall of brillant dirty guitars allow glimpses of melody. Everyone Thinks I'm A Dinosaur is a brilliant song as are Thackery, In One Eye And Out The Other, Your Face, the brilliant Murder At Murder Point and the darkest part of Miguel. A good disc recorded in Dublin by David Dubh Black (Mudhoney, Nebula, Therapy) It enchants us to discover new bands like this

April 2004 - ironskies.com

Belfast band Yakuza's long awaited debut album is a little misleading at first, opening with two good, but standard, indie-punk songs. By the time you get to third track "Everyone Thinks I'm A Dinosaur" it's obvious that this is one special Irish band. This song leads into "Badass Day", the best track on the album , with a fantastic riff that ebbs and flows in and out of distortion. There's plenty of late era Nirvana here, especially on "Miguel" but there is also rare energy in the punk tempos

4 stars out of 5 - Edel Coffey The Sunday Tribune

Finally. It seems like an age since Yakuza recorded this their debut long player. In realiyy it's only been a year but now you can hear the shambolic beauty, the shovels of noise and the slicing guitars in the comfort of you're own home. Quite rightly considered one of the best bands in Northern Ireland, the UK and quite possibly the world right now, they have fused the best bits of grunge, hardcore and swamp rock for over five years now. Honing their craft and forging ahead in true workmanlike fashion, they stand at the crossroads between creativity and pure hard work. Occaissionally they toss out great ideas, other times they work and work until a song is just right. The result is this record, I swiss army knife of guitar styles brought together on one disc. It's a heart-on-sleeve homage to Mudhoney, Shellac and Nirvana with a bit of Tom Waits thrown in but not in a crass, derivative way. "Badass Day" will probably go down as the stand out track, with it's knife against the throat sound but for me "Everyone Thinks I'm A Dinosaur" resonates more than any other song on the disc. Then again, I was always a fan: it's one of the best songs to emerge from these shores in quite some time. What makes One Nation Under Awed, though, is the feeling of a complete work, rather than a series of tunes strung together. It works from beginning to end, a well recorded slice of feedback that bristles with heat and intensity that never lets up. Complaints? Just one. This is a record of where Yakuza were a year ago. Since then they've grown, they've evolved and become an even better band. While I'm celebrating their first album there's a small part of me that's getting impatient for the next one. Still the juggernaut is officially moving. If ONUA had been released in 2003 it would have been one of the best albums of the year. I guess we'll just have to make room for it in the 2004 list.

No. 32 Alternative Ulsters Top 50 Albums of 2004 - Phil Crossey Alternative Ulster Magazine

At times the band seem literally posssessed by their own stacatto ryhthms, wiry riffs and angular edges that fuse REM style melody with strung out Gang Of Four energy. Yakuza assail out senses in a violent yet pleasureable manner, spiritual nirvana delivered by the might of the riff.

- David Roy The Irish News

Yakuza may never prostrate their art for the corporate machine, but they seem happy with their niche. There's a jubilation in the tone, a pride in the cacophony. At times the drummer threatens to abduct the songs entirely, to pummel without limitation, but then some provisional order is restored. We last saw them at Katy Daly's next door, and the tiny stage did them bo favours. Tonight, Ronan is having fun with the bonus space up there, throwing shapes, bellowing words that are mostly inaudiblem, hefty esscence of leftfield rock and roll

26th April 2004 - Stuart Bailie - BBC Radio Ulster

As Ronan Yakuza begins to twang his guitar, there are more than a few young females around my table who are starting to swoon. Yakuza are the type of band who you'd like to go for a night on the beer with but could also take home to your ma. They're nice guys who play wicked music. Their local hit "Everyone Thinks I'm A Dinosaur" is causing a fair few whoops of approval and the general feeling after their set is that Yakuza may be on to something.

14th March 2003 - Edwin Mc Fee - BBC Radio Ulster