Astro-B have been a mainstay on the Tokyo gig circuit since the late ’90s and have been cranking out high-energy electro-punk for quite sometime now.

Astro-B – Judo Man (guitar) Kiyomi Ebisawa (lead vocals), Jesus Horie San (drums), Professor Sam (keyboards), Ninja Hide (SFX) and Lama (percussion and backing vocals) – have unleashed a spectacular new single called ‘Welcome to the Astro-B’. It’s a furious fireball mix of power-pop, powerful vocals, thumping techno beats, screeching guitar riffs, computer game SFX and an insane amount of unrelenting energy – unconventional yes, but that just makes it all the more memorable and downright ace! Now, Astro-B have been doing this sort of thing since ’99 and they’ve even brought their unconventional manga style live sets to the UK in 2001 and 2005 yet this is our first encounter. Better late than never and I for one, am better for it.

Do yourself a favour and behold eccentric brilliance of ‘Welcome to the Astro-B’ below: