But historically?
This is the holy grail. The album version on Who Are You? is polished to a mirror shine. This demo is filthy . Tatsuya Mitsumura’s guitar feedback bleeds into the vocal track. You can hear a chair squeak at 0:43. It feels like you’re standing in their cramped Tokyo rehearsal room.
Let’s break down the lore.
Between 2007 and 2010, before they signed exclusively with Ki/oon Music (a Sony sub-label), NICO Touches the Walls was the undisputed king of the indie scene in Shibuya. They dropped a series of limited-run demo CDs and tour-exclusive EPs. One of the most coveted was the —named not for the video site, but for the Japanese onomatopoeia for a smile (ニコニコ).
Don't stream it. Preserve it. Keep the .rar alive. Pass the password down to the next generation of J-rock orphans. NICO Touches the Walls - -Password is niconico-.rar
But today, we aren't talking about the hits. We are talking about a ghost. A digital specter that has been bouncing around on dead Mega links and ancient forum threads for over a decade.
Posted by: JRockArchive_04 | Filed under: J-Rock, Lost Media, NICO Touches the Walls But historically
Thus, the file name was a literal instruction manual: To open me, type the password. After finally finding a mirror that wasn't hosted on a Russian geocities clone, I cracked the password (shocker: it’s niconico in all lowercase). Here is what has been hiding in the dark for 14 years.
However, in 2009, a fan ripped this demo tape, compressed it to 128kbps MP3, and packed it into a WinRAR archive. To prevent the label from taking it down via automated crawlers, they password-protected it. The password? . is polished to a mirror shine