10 Psychedelic Rock Albums You Need To Know
9. Kikagaku Moyo- Masana Temples (2018)
The Japanese hard rock scene has always been a great source for finding innovative and highly skilled musicians. Originally from Tokyo, these guys have blown up across Europe and the U.S.
Their sound is heavily inspired by Indian folk music but they draw from traditional Japanese melodies as well. At their core, however, is a hard rock nucleus. They flit back and forth between soft more gentle melodies and fuzzed out riffing.
These guys are all about the jam, and the album certainly has the feel of a bunch of musicians free flowing for its 40 minute run time - that's not to say the songs feel unpolished, everyone's locked into the groove - these guys are master musicians and it's clear they've spent years honing their sound together. Despite the presence of two guitars and a sitar, it never feels as though the instruments are jostling for space, there's a lot of room for the different melodies to intertwine around each other.
To our uncultured Western ears it mind sound like these guys are singing in a particular East Asian language but half the time the lyrics are just nonsensical sounds. Mirroring the improvisational approach of the music, the lyrics are born from whatever the singer feels is the most appropriate sound for that particular moment.
These guys are a real example of music transcending culture and language - ultimately it doesn't matter what's being sung, it's all about the feeling the sound conveys.