Aural Scenery: Kikagaku Moyo – “Melted Crystal”

Kikagaku Moyo

“Melted Crystal”

House of Tall Grasses

I love the radically different, and that is what you get with Kikagaku Moyo.  A beautiful, heady ride through various scenes in one’s mind is how I describe their music.  Kikagaku Moyo is comprised of:  Vocal/Guitar: Tomo Katsurada; Guitar: Daoud Popal; Sitar: Ryu Kurosawa; Bass: Kotsuguy; and Drum/Vocal: Go Kurosawa.  Tomo writes about the band:

“We wanted to make a record which would bring scenic images to the listeners. The idea came to my mind when I took a trip to the north of Japan. It was very cold outside, but the place I stayed was warm. I was amazed by how quiet it was outside with the snow absorbing all sound. It felt like I was covering my ears with my hands or I was under the sea. We wanted this to be a conceptual album, not a compilation of discrete tracks. I had been listening to two film soundtracks, one written by Bruce Langhorne for a western movie called The Hired Hand, the other, Ry Cooder’s soundtrack for Paris, Texas. I was deeply inspired by these records, and both created the kind of intense scenic images I was interested in.”

In my book, Kikagaku Moyo makes the perfect soundtrack for reading Haruki Murakami’s “A Wild Sheep Chase”, my favorite book.  I just really love this band.  They are to Japan what Yann Tiersen is to Brittany; the greatest tour guides ever.  Please listen to this band.  They are that exceptional.