It feels like forever ago at this point but WACK newbies EMPiRE did only properly arrive on the scene in 2018. They arrived in impressive fashion too with the release of their debut album “THE EMPiRE STRiKES START!!”. Debuts are typically pretty safe affairs, with the group in question attempting to find their feet. Given this is a WACK project many were expecting the well defined sound of the WACK production house to be in full effect. Not so as it turned out, with Matsukuma Kenta and several other collaborators teaming up to produce some of the most original WACK tunes we’d heard in a while up until that point in time. Perhaps the one time you’ll ever hear me say that the Avex influence might have actually helped a group’s music. A breath of fresh air that still holds up as we move into 2019. Full Review
| Cassette Tape+DVD
