When it comes to music, it seems that 3 really is the magic number. When a trio of musicians come together, a certain type of alchemy happens and wonderful, unique sounds are created. Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience and Motörhead are just a few amongst countless examples, and now you can add Mass Of Fermenting Dregs to that illustrious list. They’re a trio who create a sound far bigger than their constituent parts and have been captivating the world since 2002 with their blend of shoegaze, math rock and post-hardcore. Drawing equal musical influence from their native Japan (9mm Parabellum Bullet, NUMBER GIRL) and Western bands (Smashing Pumpkins, The Wedding Present), Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs are a live experience like no other and that means a sold-out crowd awaits the band’s appearance at Birmingham’s Hare And Hounds venue.
Retail Store at The Hare And Hounds in Birmingham (6 October 2025) | Photography by JJ Grant (wonderlens)
I don’t know what I was expecting from a band called Retail Store, but it certainly wasn’t the psych-tinged, high-octane, punky anthems that the band delivered when they burst onto the stage. Like a rubber band that’s been stretched to breaking point and then released, Retail Store are bang on point from the very best note. Although they’ve only been in existence for a year (they were formed from the ashes of another Birmingham band, indie/pop combo Quentin Francis), Retail Store are playing with wise heads and pace their set perfectly. After the amphetamine-fuelled opener, they drop down a gear to unleash their first single Ghost Friend, and very nice it is too, meaning that their set ebbs and flows like waves lapping the shore. Their sound is a bass-heavy beast, and the band stomp like an elephant in the room, making them hard to ignore, but when the songs are this good, why would you want to? Tracks such as Daddy’s Money have an adhesive quality: despite being heavy, psychedelic and punky, they are catchy as hell and attach themselves to your memory bank like hungry limpets. For many present, this will be their first time witnessing Retail Store, but I bet it won’t be their last.
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs at The Hare And Hounds in Birmingham(6 October 2025) | Photography by JJ Grant (wonderlens)
There’s a real excitement surrounding Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs’ appearance tonight and the merchandise stall is doing a brisk trade from a queue that never seems to shorten. It means that when the band take the stage for their final equipment checks and tunes their instruments, they are welcomed with a huge cheer. That cheer becomes a roar when the band launches into the opening track Kakuiu Mono and both band and crowd burst into action with each urging the other towards greater insanity. In fact, it’s a very unifying experience with the crowd singing along with every word and punching the air in unison while the band attack their instruments with great gusto.
Katuiu Mono is a song that encapsulates the band’s modus operandi very well; the heavy rhythm section (Natsuko Miyamoto, bass and Isao Yoshino, drums) is balanced by the light and airy guitar of Naoya Ogura and the two polar opposites find an easy equilibrium. The result is a sound that has a strange effect on the crowd (in the nicest possible way) and pulls them in two directions: songs such as She Is Inside, He Is Outside are math rock nuggets that shouldn’t really be so catchy, yet somehow these three musicians make complexity simple and then wrap it all up in beautiful melodies.
It all comes down to band chemistry; the three members share sixth sense which verges on telepathy, the brainwaves that flows between them means they know what the other is going to do (before they do it) and they handle all the time changes with apparent ease. It gives their set an organic feel and the impression that the songs could evolve in any direction. Naoya paints small pools of light, concentric circles that expand like a stone skipped across water, but it is drummer Isao who is the band’s engine room and allows them to explore new sonic territory. His oeuvre includes space rock, indie, and motorik krautrock beats, they are all knitted together and form a bedrock from which Natsuko and Naoya can sprinkle their magic.
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs at The Hare And Hounds in Birmingham (6 October 2025) | Photography by JJ Grant (wonderlens)
In fact, Natsuko becomes like a second (or another lead) guitarist. There was a time when the bass guitar was hidden in a rock band, more a supplementary instrument (and The Doors dispensed with a bassist completely) that was used solely for keeping rhythm. Not so with Natsuko, who brings the bass to the fore and dictates the pace, rather than sitting behind it. The result is a sound that gets up close and personal, in a way that other rock music doesn’t and it is this which makes Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs an interactive experience; the audience feels that they are part of the show, rather than mere spectators.
Tonight’s show is the band’s third since arriving in the UK. The preceding two have warmed them up nicely and Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs are purring like a well-tuned engine with cuts like New Order and Dramatic flowing into each other seamlessly. There’s very little time wasted on between-song banter, the band preferring to deliver their songs in a rapid-fire manner and that gives things a sense of urgency as we race towards the evening’s finale. The unusual structure of the band’s songs seems to alter the very fabric of time and that means closing track World Is Yours comes around far too soon, but not before the band return for a well-deserved encore, and delusionalism sends all home happy.
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs at The Hare And Hounds in Birmingham(6 October 2025) | Photography by JJ Grant (wonderlens)
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs Setlist:
1. Kakuiu Mono
2. She Is Inside, He Is Outside
3. Aoi, Koi, Daidai-iro Hibi
4. You
5. Sugar
6. New Order
7. Dramatic
8. 1960
9. Dareka gaa
10. End Roll
11. I F A Surfer
12. Asahinagu
13. World Is Yours
Encore:
14. delusionalism
Photography by: JJ Grant (wonderlens)
