“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.

 

 

 

 

“A Crowd of Stars” by Revolutionary Army of The Infant Jesus

Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus is the name of a mysterious collection of Liverpool musicians with an obscure but revered catalogue of 3 albums released since 1987.

They have a new album coming out in September on UK label Occultation Recordings called “Beauty Will Save The World” of which this track is the first taste.

The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus name is apparently from a fictional terrorist group in Luis Bunuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire. The group keep a low profile and prefer their music to be discovered by people rather than promoted as such. This recent Greenbelt Music Festival write-up on them is about as much as I know.

I wasn’t familiar with RAOTIJ prior to hearing “Beauty Will Save The World” but reading reviews of previous albums indicates this continues the theme of ghostly “apocalyptic folk” mixed with more industrial electronic sounds.

If you are familiar with Dead Can Dance or Popul Vuh, this is in similar (but still quite distinctive and unique) territory. Spoken word samples and vocals are used sparingly but with haunting effect. It’s a dark, misty and compellingly beautiful album listened to in its entirety.