replica

Koikaze ni nosete

mabuta

hitomibore

wasuremono

By 1985, Billy Noknees was done with bandmates, producers, and people in general. After falling out with yet another drummer over whether “drum machines have feelings,” Billy did what any misunderstood musical visionary would do—he bought a synth and declared himself a one-man band.

Armed with a secondhand Casio, a Tascam 4-track, and an extension cord that definitely wasn’t up to code, Billy converted his flat into a DIY recording lair he called “The Fortress of Soliloquy.” There, in a haze of incense smoke, instant noodles, and melted keyboard keys, he recorded The Blade Is Clean—a synth-pop anthem with lyrics straight out of a medieval blood ritual.

Despite being 100% self-produced and recorded between power surges, Billy’s track is strangely compelling. The music is pure shimmering ‘80s pop—bright backing vocals, gated reverb snares, pulsing basslines—while the lyrics are full-on heavy metal poetry:

"The blade is clean, 
(the sky is black—)
And none of them…  
(are coming back.)
(Yeah yeah yeah yeah)"

Billy recorded all vocals while lying on his kitchen floor for “emotional gravity,” and allegedly played each synth part with fingerless gloves dipped in glitter glue, which permanently fused one of the keys to the letter “B.”

At one point, he set his carpet on fire trying to create a smoke effect by lighting incense directly under a fan, resulting in a panicked fire extinguisher incident and a synth solo played entirely with one hand while the other held a damp towel.

No label would touch The Blade Is Clean, especially after Billy mailed the demo wrapped in tinfoil and sealed with a lock of his hair. He pressed ten 12” copies himself, one of which was found in 1999, inside a cupboard during a housing association inspection.

The others remain missing.

Now, after AI remastering, The Blade Is Clean is finally back—with its original DIY sleeve art featuring a sunset from a broken camera.

So plug in, power up, and prepare to stab the darkness—with synths!
Because in 1985, Billy Noknees didn’t just clean the blade...
He cleaned up the whole damn genre.

hitomibore

Vaundy

Related tracks