Buck-Tick | Artist
Buck-Tick is a Japanese rock band formed 1983 in Fukioka by lead vocalist and drummer Atsushi Sakurai, lead guitarist Hisashi Imai, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino and bassist Yutaka Higuchi. Toll Yagami joined as drummer in 1985. The band has experimented with many different genres of music throughout their long career, including punk rock, gothic rock and industrial. With their Glam-Goth sound and appearance, they are commonly credited as one of the main founders of the visual kei movement. Although they didn't get as much international recognition as their counterparts X-Japan, they certainly did no less for the development of the style, and have achieved stardom in their native country in the process. The group, initially named Hinan Go-Go, was started by Imai Hisashi, who couldn't even play any instruments at the time, and Higuchi Yutaka, who played bass. Imai chose the guitar, and the two completed the lineup with their high school friends. At this stage, the bandmembers limited themselves to covers, mostly of the radical Japanese hardcore band the Stalin, and began working on their attire, makeup and hair-style. The group soon changed its name to Buck-Tick (derived from the Japanese word for "firecracker"), moved to Tokyo, and began writing original songs. Yutaka brought his older brother Yagami Toll into the fold, fresh out of his own disbanded act, SP. Yagami filled in as the drummer, and Sakurai took over as the vocalist, Araki getting the boot because of his lack of skill. Since then, Buck-Tick's lineup hasn't changed. Their first three albums released in 1987-88 were well received locally but their fourth, Taboo (1989) raised interest internationally, having been recorded in London with a much darker atmosphere to their previous records. Then followed a series of four excellent albums released over the period 1990-93 which firmly established the band's reputation within Japan and internationally. Buck-Tick hit some tumultuous times in 1996, when they went "cyberpunk," introducing electronic influences on their album Cosmos. The same year saw Sakurai almost die of peritonitis during a photo shoot in Nepal. In 1997, the band released Sexy Stream Liner, another cyberpunk album with some Theremin thrown in. The single "Gessekai" (1998) was used in the anime series Nightwalker, which broadened the band's exposure to Western audiences. The band has continued to release consistently strong albums to the present day. Of their 25 studio albums to-date, some standouts include Aku no hana (1990), Kurutta Taiyo (1991), This is Not Greatest Hits (1992), Darker Than Darkness (1993), Cosmos (1996), Juusankai wa gekkou (2005), Memento Mori (2009), and Atom Miraiha No.9 (2016). On October 19, 2023, during a concert at KT Zepp Yokohama that was exclusively for members of Buck-Tick's fan club, Sakurai was rushed to a hospital due to sudden signs of illness, abruptly ending the performance after only three songs. Sadly, he died from a brainstem hemorrage at the hospital later that night, at the age of 57.
Artist Website: buck-tick.com
Featured Albums: Buck-Tick
Related Artists: Hinan Go-Go
