Kikagaku Moyo
House in the Tall Grass

There is no doubt that what Julian Cope did first with 'Krautrocksampler' and then, even if receiving perhaps less feedback from the public, with 'Japrocksampler' was something truly influential in the musical culture of recent years and a fundamental work in the discovery and rediscovery of musical cultures and genres that had been forgotten or completely unknown to the majority of listeners worldwide. In theory, to tell the whole truth, 'Japrocksampler' was probably the most important work and the most difficult to write (the full title being: 'Japrocksampler: How the Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock'n'Roll'). Until that moment, there wasn't much documentation in Europe, and Cope then had to work to create his own true encyclopedia and collection of information, gradually building the picture of the situation from millions of little pieces of information. As far as I'm concerned, what he did

In practice, he had to start trying to reconstruct what the situation was in Japan after World War II and what the process of democratization and westernization of the country was, the impact this had on people and the music scene, and then go on to analyze the Japanese experimental music scene between 1951 and 1969 and the various main Japanese bands like J.A. Caesar, Taj Mahal Travellers, Flower Travellin' Band, Les Rallizes Denudes.

Ultimately, it's a reading I recommend not only to music enthusiasts because it has a lot of interesting content, and Cope is obviously an excellent writer who knows how to grasp different historical and cultural references and argue them in a documented and interesting way.

What about the current Japanese music scene and particularly regarding psychedelic music? Cope did an excellent job of reconstructing the past, but his intent was clearly to look to the future and perhaps to be in some way a 'guide'. Who knows if a band like Kikagaku Moyo has read his book and found it in some way useful. Coming from Tokyo, Kikagaku Moyo are undoubtedly the most well-known among the currently active Japanese psychedelic bands if we exclude Osaka guitarist Kawabata Makoto's Acid Mothers Temple, of course, which can be considered by now a cult band and a truly multifaceted experimental ensemble in the psychedelic macro-genre and progressive music.

Kikagaku Moyo has a recent history. They started playing on the streets of Tokyo in 2012 and since then have grown a lot, transitioning from being a sort of fluid collective to the definitive form of a true psychedelic rock band with influences from various genres, from kraut-rock to traditional folk music, and up to seventies rock (not necessarily psychedelic). It didn't take long for them to be noticed by listeners and critics, who quickly showed interest in their music. They have already toured around the world and participated in major psychedelic music festivals, and their 2014 album 'Forest of Lost Children' has been universally acclaimed as one of the best in the genre in recent years. It has already been reprinted three times!

The new album was recorded in Tokyo at Tsubame Studio and mixed, mastered, and produced by Yui Kimijima. The band presented their album as a surpassing of everything they have done up to this moment and described 'House In the Tall of Grass' (Guruguru Brain) as the end, the culmination of a long journey during which they worked to free their mind and body.

All very good. I must say that after listening to the album, I can only consider that this band has greatly improved in the recent period. I'm not just referring to their recordings—I have seen these guys play live a couple of times and although I liked them, I always considered there was a lack of real unity in their sound, as if they were still searching for a well-defined formula. The sound and the individual songs were always too heterogeneous from each other, giving an unpleasant sense of disjointedness from one passage to the next.

But from this point of view, as I said, they have grown a lot. 'House In the Tall of Grass' is a much more compact album and, if possible, with a line of continuity that goes from the first track, the long acid psych session 'Green Sugar', to the last one, 'Cardigan Song', which could be defined as a traditional psychedelic folk ballad.

The whole album is characterized by an ethereal, almost evanescent spirit, which is accentuated by the singing that is always soft and takes the listener to a magical, fantastic dimension. Songs like 'Trad' and 'Silver Owl' on the other hand combine this approach with their dedication to playing typically seventies electric acid rock, creating a mix between what could be defined as a sense of calm and chaos and disorder. Other episodes are much more evocative: the instrumental session of 'Melted Crystal', the groovy sound of 'Dune', and the short track 'Fata Morgana' dominated by the sound of synthesizers and electric organ. But no less interesting are what I think are direct influences from traditional Japanese music, particularly in the atmospheres created and in a certain use of percussion and 'tempo', like 'Kogarashi' (which also made me think of the US psych band Magic Castles) and the same 'Cardigan Song'.

Ultimately, there are always a lot of reference points that this band looks to, and they always try to use them all, but the novelty in this case is perhaps the fact that they manage to blend them in a better way and finally configure what could finally be defined as a sound that is their own. We talked earlier about what is a journey in which they worked to grow and free the body and mind. Well, perhaps this journey isn't over yet—only God knows how much road there is still to travel—but listening to this album, I can say that the road they have taken is the right one. 'Have a good trip, guys,' then. In every possible sense.