Kikagaku Moyo – “Gatherings”
After releasing their self-titled debut in 2013, the Japanese psych-rock band Kikagaku Moyo launched into a prolific streak, unleashing another two albums before we got to the end of 2016. Since their last outing, House In The Tall Grass, they took a little more time to explore the world and effectively sum up their experiences across it. The five-piece came up in Tokyo’s experimental scene and all used to live together in a house there, but in recent years individual members have decamped to Amsterdam or other parts of Japan; they also collectively traveled to Lisbon to record an album with the jazz musician Bruno Pernadas. The end result is called Masana Temples, and it’ll be out this October.
Though the music on Masana Temples is influenced by the band’s experiences living and traveling together, it also suggests other worlds by nature of its expansive psych-rock. Appropriately, the word “Masana” was actually made up by the band for just such an effect, a word they intended to conjure “a Utopian feeling, an existence where everything can interact harmoniously and offer inspiration and understanding.”
Along with the announcement, the band shared the first preview of Masana Temples, a track called “Gatherings.” Here’s what drummer/vocalist Go Kurosawa had to say about the single:
“Gatherings” is the oldest song on this record. With this song, we’re expressing our journey in the world. We’ve gathered everyone in the band’s ideas in this song along with the ideas and influences of the places we’ve visited throughout our travels.
In that sense, “Gatherings” is a logical thematic entry point to Masana Temples. It’s also a promising initial taste musically. Though it starts, and is periodically ruptured, by big swaggering fuzz riffs of the ’70s stoner-rock variety, it also wanders through transporting, spaced-out passages that almost recall Stereolab. If you’re amenable to different aspects of psychedelic music — whether the sunburnt guitar leads, the more aqueous key textures swirling beneath, or the vocals in reverie — chances are “Gatherings” may be appealing. Check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Entrance”
02 “Dripping Sun”
03 “Nazo Nazo”
04 “Fluffy Kosmich”
05 “Majupose”
06 “Nana”
07 “Orange Peel”
08 “Amayadori”
09 “Gatherings”
10 “Blanket Song”
TOUR DATES:
08/03 & 08/04 – Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
08/06 — Victoria, BC @ Capitol Ballroom^
08/07 – Tofino, BC @ Tofino Brewing^
08/09 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall^
08/10 – Arcata, CA @ Richard’s Goat^
08/11 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands
09/28 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
09/30 – Milwaukee, WI @ Mad Planet
10/04 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett
10/05 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
10/06 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial
10/12 & 10/13 -Lake Perris, CA @ Desert Daze
10/14 – Tucson, AZ @ Cans Deli
10/16 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda
10/17 – Dallas, TX @ Regal Room
10/18 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
10/19 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt
10/20 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight
10/21 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Backroom
10/23 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat – Backstage
10/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
10/26 – Burlington, VT @ Artsriot
10/27 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
10/28 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
^ = w/ Wand
Masana Temples is out 10/5 via Guruguru Brain.
