Coaltar of the Deepers were founded in Tokyo during the spring of 1991. Until 2007, the lineup of the band consisted of only three members Narasaki (vocals, guitar, programing), Kanno (drums), and Yoshio (bass). Live performances and recordings were always guest supported by other renowned musicians. The current live-support are the two guitarists Akira Nakayama (Plastic Tree) and KOJI (Cocobat), bassist Kenjirou Murai (ex. cali≠gari, ex. SEX MACHINEGUNS, Mag-net) and Watchman (ex. Melt-Banana).
During their foundation year, Watanabe was the vocalist whilst Narasaki exclusively played guitar. In 1991, they just released a few demos, which later were released on their first official release, White EP.
Almost a year later, in October 1992, Queen's Park all you change was released under Stomly Records, but just before the release Watanabe left the band and Narasaki took over as vocalist. After the release of Sinking Slowly, the band's activities stopped for a while.
In April 1994, Coaltar of the Deepers' first full-length album found its way into music stores. The Visitors from Deepspace was released by the major-label Victor Records and included seven brand new songs as well as a cover of the The Cure's Killing An Arab.
After a deliberate pause of three years the band continued their work and released in 1997 and 1998 two consecutive EPs. With their following release, Submerge, they released new remixed old songs and Coaltar of the Deepers fans were pleased to hear of the release of their best-of album The Breastroke.
During the next two years CotD released little new material, except for their full-length album Come over to the Deepend, whose title is a wordplay of the bands abbreviation "CotD", and a single EP.
During this time however, Narasaki worked on four side projects. In 1999, he and Watchman (ex. Melt-Banana) founded the electro-project Sadesper Record and contributed the song Torso to the anime OST "Boogiepop Phantom". Additionally, he contributed to the original score of the anime series "Paradise Kiss" and joined Kenji Otsuki's band Tokusatsu.
After the release of the full-length album No Thank You Coaltar of the Deepers explored other musical genres. They started to work more intently with electronic beats and sounds and the next album Newave, even had an oriental sound. After the small North America tour in 2003, the next two releases in 2004, Mouse EP and Penguin EP came along with heavy, distorted guitars, and death-metal-like growls. Despite all this changes and renewals, CotD never forgot their shoegazing roots.
In 2002, they also contributed to the anime soundtrack GREATFUL SOUND ~ tribute to BECK; their song h s k s" also appeared in the 16th episode of the series "BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad". The first album, A Sort Of Sound Tracks For U.F.O., of Narasaki's project Sadesper Record was released in 2004. On April 13, CotD fans had a good reason to jump for joy! Finally the first live DVD was released. Forever additionally contained an audio CD with the full recording of the concert.
Once again the band's activities stopped, but Narasaki founded the new band Runaway Boys with Kyo from D'erlanger and during this time he also mixed and produced the album Pinkshinyultrablast of the shoegaze-band Astrobrite.
For Coaltar of the Deepers's fans, 2007 was a year with two sides of the same coin. In May, the Tortoise EP was released and two months later they also released the new, long-awaited full-length album Yukari Telepath. Unfortunately, after many years as bassist for the band, Yoshio left CotD in 2007.
Coaltar of the Deepers is a well-known band that has had much success since 1991; even though their activities are not as active as other bands, their music is definitely worth keeping them in mind.
