1000s of Cats is a US/Japanese garage rock duo consisting of Sonoko Nebashi (guitar/vocals) and David Gatchell (from Selby Tigers and Sean Na Na) (drums/vocals that continue to master the art of blending melodic sweet and a jangly noise rock sour on their third album, Lightning High.

Black Hole Underground, Goodbye Brain, and the title track, embody the perfect conflict between the sweetness of Southeast Asian vocals and the harshness of battered percussion and incessant walls of fuzz-laden guitars. Here they hover on the verge of transitioning from Shonen Knife’s pseudo-melodic style to being swallowed by the darker waters of jangle punk. In contrast, Suigyu #51 and Murasaki T-Shirt embrace the exhilarating thrill of diving deep into the realms of noise rock and jangle-punk instead of trying to fight the urge to fall.

When they dial back the intensity just enough to allow the melodic elements to emerge, Lightning High truly excels. As such Kira Kira, Hikari, and Ishi enhance a wall of guitars reminiscent of Lucie Too, creating a sound that, while chaotic, beautifully balances the overall sense of mayhem in a musical dichotomy that is effective on multiple levels.

Noise, abrasion, battered percussion has never felt quite so sweet as it does with this 1000s of Cats duo.

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