Zine Review: Love Letters to Gauze

Gauze is one of those legendary Japanese bands I first heard as a teenager, 20 years ago, after seeing some of my favorite bands at the time wearing shirts and patches with the iconic Gauze “anarchy” logo. The first Gauze record I downloaded from Soulseek was their second and most emblematic album, Equalizing Distort, originally released by Selfish Records in 1986.

I was blown away by the intensity of their sound and how absolutely wild that record is. I had also gone vegan a bit earlier, so I was kind of pissed at the lyrics of their anti-vegan song “Crash The Pose,” and I still think lines like “Put my dickhead in tofu” are extremely stupid even by ’80s punk standards.

That didn’t stop me from continuing to listen to the band, eventually realizing that such lyrics were Gauze’s reaction to the uniformity of the anarcho-punk scene in the UK. Even in their early years, when they were heavily influenced by Discharge, Gauze never followed trends or tried to copy their influences. Not long after hearing Equalizing Distort , I got the Gauze 7-inch, released by Prank Records in 1997, along with some other records I mail-ordered from the US.

Now, I love seeing a punk zine dedicated to Gauze. In general, it’s great to see zines paying homage to the histories and myths surrounding some of the sickest hardcore punk bands out there, rather than leaving them only as subjects for books and academic papers. Nothing wrong with books either, but zines are still the lifeblood of this scene. Love Letters to Gauze is the third installment in author Kristof J. Mondy‘s Love Letters series, after Love Letters From the Polish Punk Scene in the 80s and Love Letters from Christina’s Flyer Collection.

Do I agree with Kristof that Gauze is “the greatest punk band of all time”? Well, I don’t think anyone should make such bold claims, but I love zines that go deep into explaining why someone might be one of the most unique and intense punk band of all time. Though when it comes to Japan, there are so many great contenders. While my favorites like Bastard and Warhead released their raging beasts later in the early ’90s, you also have the absolute stunner that is Ikkashinju’s Slow Down EP, released in 1985, the same year Gauze put out their Fuck Heads LP.

What makes Gauze stand out, though, is their longevity and dedication. They didn’t just release a couple of obscure records and disappear, nor did they start new bands. Instead, they kept crafting their sound throughout a career that spanned from 1981 until their final show in November 2022. That’s 41 years without slowing down or taking a break! They were probably one of the longest-running influential punk bands with a steady lineup. Unlike bands like Discharge, who changed countless members and recorded hair metal records that made them look like a laughing-stock for a while, Gauze somehow got faster, harder, and more intense with age.

As the stories published in Love Letters make clear, Gauze also never compromised their DIY ethics for more than 40 years. There are some really interesting facts here, like their strict one-shirt-per-person policy, meaning they wouldn’t sell more than one shirt to a person at their gigs. There are tellings about their Tokyo shows, which the band used to book themselves, playing around 60 to 70 songs in roughly two-hour sets. That’s something I really can’t comprehend, not just because I like hardcore bands playing short 15-20 minute sets, but because how can a band as intense as Gauze play for two hours straight?

Gauze may also not be the most political band out there. They always tried to avoid being preachy, barely saying anything between songs and letting the intensity of their music speak for itself. But they also played a lot of benefit gigs, made benefit shirts, and supported people in need whenever they could. They are some of those humble Japanese punks for whom punk means giving a helping hand when someone needs it the most.

Now, back to the contents of Love Letters to Gauze. Kristof has collected stories, pictures, and posters from people who also love Gauze. A large part of the zine was made possible thanks to Ken Sanderson of Prank Records, the person who did so much to make Japanese punk known in the US during the ’90s.

Featured here is the interview Ken did with Gauze in 1997 for Maximumrocknroll, and that interview really lays out some of the foundations of Gauze as a band, especially when they talk about how the idea was not to play the fastest songs imaginable, but to change people’s perception of speed. To increase the feeling of speed, not the speed itself, as the band say in the interview. There are also some great insights into the band’s ethics and how they always tried to do things their own way. As another write-up in the zine puts it, Gauze is not your reference for Japanese punk!

Even more interesting than the 1997 band interview is Ken’s in-depth story about Gauze’s 1996 tour in the US, which actually consisted of only four gigs, one of which infamously ended in total disaster after some guy broke a water pipe during the His Hero Is Gone set, leading to the evacuation of the entire venue. I’ll spare you the details, as the story is incredible and the whole tour report is recommended reading.

The zine also includes Gauze-related stories from members of bands like Dropdead and Seein’ Red, both hugely influenced by Gauze and both lucky enough to play with them on their Japanese tours. There’s also an interview with Gabba from Chaos UK, republished from Negative Insight zine, talking in more detail about Gauze’s 1989 tour in the UK. I also love the article about the “Gauze formula,” which looks at Gauze’s records from a more musical perspective and explains why the band was so groundbreaking and unique.

The zine also contains a guide to Gauze videos that can be found on YouTube, with QR codes leading to the links. So I want to finish this write-up with one of those legendary videos of Gauze playing with Discharge at Club Citta in Kawasaki in February 1991. I’m not sure how many readers are aware of it, but I think that Gauze and Discharge show is one of the most iconic gigs in punk history. It’s great that we have this video material to preserve it for generations. And thanks to Kristof for putting out this zine.