Gig Recap Japan Edition: Kikagaku Moyo, Tempalay, Paellas (Tokyo 21.01.2017)

Last month your head editor here went on a glorious three-week bender in Japan and you’ve guessed it – saw lots of awesome music. We’ll spend the next week dipping our toes into the various scenes brewing in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto – hope you enjoy!

Tokyo is a beast of a place. When you’re not stumbling upon another temple, shrine, or massive mall outlet, you’re bombarded with restaurants, shops, bars, records stores, and narrow alleyways containing even more. It’s overwhelming in the truest sense – particularly Shibuya – a ward of Tokyo in the southwest of the city that’s particularly bursting at the seams in terms of activity. That’s where ventured toward my first weekend in Japan. My goal: to catch Kikagaku Moyo – a Japanese psychedelic rock group that relishes in the softer, more upbeat vibrant sounds of the 1960s.

I had happened upon them using Tokyo Gig Guide – a very comprehensive (even then its missing some essential joints) roundup of everything gig wise happening in Tokyo – and knew on first listen this was my jam. So my wife and I found our way to Maruyama-cho where the venue was located – well, four actually, as O-Group has four adjacent venues, each catering to a different crowd. Which is ridiculous, but whatever, O-Nest was the one we wanted so up we went.

A hefty ticket price later (around 180 RMB including a drink ticket) and a quick dinner of soda noodles, and we got our first taste of the music scene in Japan at nice and early 6:30pm as electronic artist and VJ Kento Yamada (known as dutch from rising electronic quintet yahyel) whose dark, gritty, dystopian sound would fit easily in with Beijing’s underground electronic scene.

However, the real fun started with Paellas, the R&B driven synth pop outfit, whose unabashed nocturnal pop sounds left me wishing more male singers in Beijing would risk sounding this delicately sensual. An unexpected surprise one could say.

The first true sign that I was in for a unique showcase was when Tempalay, whose sound is very much in its own realm – came on stage. Whilst I was expecting an upbeat indie pop sound that would have girls swooning I was surprised at how mellow and straight up weird their sound were.

Elements of lo-fi chillwave throughout, an indie pop groove that floats over each sound, and a swig of math rock riffing and slacker rock nonchalance thrown in for good measure, it’s hard to describe the what exactly Tempalay are up to but I was transfixed.

In between sets I stocked up on Suntory’s finest (aka cheapest) whiskey and check out the DJ sets in the floor above the main stage area, just as packed as below, and then finally managed to squeeze my way into the crowd for the main event – Kikagaku Moyo – who blew me away. Drug-fuelled 60s psych jam rock that feels like the lighter, more head-bopping folk-oriented cousin to Acid Mothers Temple more chaotic palette.

Thick reverb, acoustic breakdowns, meaty guitar riffs, cosmic prog rock builds, and a sitar for crying out loud– how does one not enjoy this. And swear that the band had a requirement before joining that their hair had to be a certain length. Acid folk at its finest.

And like that the show was over – ten minutes behind schedule, meaning 11:10pm – giving my wife and I plenty of time to scurry across the city back to our neighborhood, still vibrating for the sweet sweet sounds of Tokyo. More photos below and for you lucky cats down south in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, be sure to catch Tempalay in early March. Osaka next!

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