When I think of the Japanese ‘skinhead sound’ I think of the violent and brutal sounding powerhouses the land of the Rising Sun has brought us. That there are skinhead bands with a slightly different sound out there usually slips my mind for most of the time. Still they are out there, and one of them is The Solution from Gifu, Japan.

 

Altough The Solution has been around for over 10 years already, “Then Now Always” is actually the first full-length album by this band and was originally released in 2012 on CD only by Japanese label Bootstomp Records. Now Bords De Seine took the courtesy to release this album on vinyl in a limited run of only 300 copies.

 

What you get are 11 new tracks (I’m not counting the intro as a song) of this mod revival fueled Oi! band altough you might interpret ‘mod revival’ as poppy as well. Does this mean it’s a bad record? No, not at all actually. “Then Now Always” is a album that is very easy on the ears with tons of melody, catchy choruses and clean vocals (all in English with hardly any accent) that make it a very enjoyable record to listen to whether you are a skinhead, punk, mod or casual.

 

As a bonus, you get a CD version of the album with the vinyl version as well. Besides “Then Now Always” you also get the compilation “Wall Of Hits” Bords De Seine originally released on vinyl in 2004. “Wall Of Hits” contains various EP’s and singles the band has released in their homeland which rounds the total amount of tracks on this release up to 23 songs. The Bords De Seine version of “Then Now Always” is the ultimate collection of the classy The Solution, good stuff!