In 2010 I met this Japanese lad called Hidetomo Tanaka. You can hear his voice on Osaka Boy (one of our most popular tracks) and Stillstand (largely written by Fritz with interruptions by me) both of which are available on this site. By the end of the year we all despised him! He proved himself to be one of the most selfish, conceited and utterly arrogant individuals it has ever been my misfortune to encounter. He loves 2 things in life: himself and money. I thought Thanh Trung Nguyen was a selfish bigot but by Christ, he’s a paragon of virtue by comparison.
Tanaka, we later learned, comes from a typically wealthy, middle class family and expects everyone else in the world to serve his whims. How does Hidetomo Tanaka change a screw top light bulb? He doesn’t – he simply inserts the bulb into the socket and waits for the world to revolve around him. This is the final appearance by UJ (Zhang Yao Min) as a performing member of UNIT. He also co-wrote the text and music with me. This comes from the album The Workshop, our first project after the departure of Luc Tran and Wong Yit Sinh. I very quickly had to improve my keyboard skills...which of course I did because I’m so cool, windswept and interesting.
Kobe boy – who have you used today?
Kobe boy – who have you abused today?
Kobe boy – who have you thrown away?
Kobe boy – you had so much to say
but every single word of it was bullshit anyway.
Conceited, egotist, arrogant, coward, hypocrite – you’re all of these.
You think people grow on trees, that you can use them as you please.
You’re a traitor to humanity and an insult to all Japanese.
You used me like a convenient tool,
treated UJ as if he was a bloody fool.
You’re nothing – a waste of space.
The way you treated us was a total disgrace.
You’re selfish – that’s plain to see;
you’re a spoilt little brat and nothing more.
You’ve nothing to say to me
that I have not heard a thousand times before.
Kobe boy – nobody respects you; Kobe boy – do you wonder why?
Kobe boy – do the world a favour: Kobe boy – lay down and die.
Conceited, egotist, arrogant, coward, hypocrite – you’re all of these.
You think people grow on trees, that you can use them as you please.
You’re a traitor to humanity and an insult to all Japanese.
Andy Martin – Vocals, Hammond Organ.
Zhang Yao Min – Guitars.
Fabian Fritze – Bass Guitar.
Colin Murrell – Drums.
Text & Music – Andy Martin & Zhang Yao Min.
If you have enjoyed this track we recommend you check out these works by UNIT on this site
A Study Of Alkaline Metals
Barbara's Bridge
Another Faded Fragment
The Quasar
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
A Normal Child
Donations to our finances can be made ([email protected]) if you wish to support our future work.
In 2016 we released our 30th album (Fast – Clean – Cheap) and with it an era passed. We realised it is neither necessary nor desirable to continue to issue our work on compact discs. The process is expensive and time consuming (pressing CDs, printing booklets and tray cards, buying jiffy bags, going to the post office – it’s so 1990s) so now Band Camp exists, an avenue is presented by which we can release our work to the public directly. Our projects will be obtainable from this address:
unit-united.bandcamp.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The paypal address for our Band Camp and Lulu sites is now [email protected].
In addition there are currently 12 books available. These are proper books in print, not fake, ersatz ‘books’ you see advertised on the internet these days as ‘e-books’. They can be purchased from lulu.com. Type ‘Andy Martin – Grange Hill’ to locate them.
[email protected]
