“Heavenly Peace” by C. Memi

“Heavenly Peace” is the closing track from a 1983 7″ single released in Japan by musician C. Memi, previously leader of Japanese New Wave band Neo Matisse. The 5 song EP was released on a now sold out 12″ by New York label Bitter Lake Recordings last year. It’s a transcendental piece of minimal synth pop that sounds as timeless as it is perfect.

C. Memi’s “Heavenly Peace” EP is quite a bit different to the sounds created with Japanese punk/ new wave band Neo Matisse, best known for a song called  “No Chocolate”  It also sounds unlike Western synth pop from the early 1980s era, but does sound uncannily like the kind of Western ‘DIY bedroom’ synth-pop made decades later.

Bandcamp published an information article about C. Memi and the Japanese New Wave and synth pop underground of the early 1980s to coincide this release last year which you can read here.

“Kogarashi” by Kikagaku Moyo

Kikagaku Moyo are a psych-rock band from Japan and their new album – “House in the Long Grass”, which is out in a few weeks – is mind-expanding and wonderful.

This particular song “Kogarashi” has a spiritual and meditational feel. It’s almost like some devotional European folk but, as you’ll discover with each song, it manages to evoke a sense of familiarity without actually sounding ‘like’ anything in particular you know.

I was so impressed by just this one song I ordered the LP from Japan before I even listened to another track. It’s an affordable investment too, working out at about $30 NZD for the black vinyl edition plus $10 NZD postage.

Just one song is not enough to give you a sense of the wonder of this album though, as each song captures a distinctive mood. The opening track on the album – “Green Sugar” – is another different but also brilliant slice of dreamy delicious psych adventure, bursting with the spirit of Can circa their Ege Bamyasi album.

There’s a huge range of music on the album judging from the 4 tracks available to stream (or download upon your pre-order purchase). For example, the 10 minute epic “Silver Owl” is a monster of shifting psych morphing through several ‘movements’ from gentle opening to impressive heavy-psych-prog-metal guitar fury ending.

This is the third album from Kikagaku Moyo and they have also released a few EPs and singles, so there’s an exciting back catalogue awaiting discovery too.