KIKAGAKU MOYO
Kikagaku Moyo
A resident of Tokyo who attended college in the United States, Go Kurosawa has lived in two of the world’s most developed societies. But the high-tech, high-density, industrialized urban precincts that he has known as home can feel far away from the gardens of stereo tilled by his band, Kikagaku Moyo.
The Tokyo-based quintet, formed in 2012, is embarking on a second U.S. tour, with stops in late October at Moonfest in downtown West Palm Beach and Gramps in Miami, in support of a new LP, House in the Tall Grass. Even if the English-language album and song titles — Melted Crystal, Dune, Silver Owl — didn’t signal a fascination with nature, a listener would recognize it in the soft-hued psychedelic jams and lacy, folk-ish instrumentals.
But Kurosawa, who plays drums and provides vocals, tells PureHoney that Kikagaku Moyo (“geometric patterns”) are not rejecting civilization, just contemplating its limits. “For us, nature also means something mysterious, something massive which we cannot control, but something never betrayed as a place where we can get inspiration,” he says, texting in English (his second language) via Skype.
“Being in Japan,” he continues, “we always face… natural disaster, actually we just had typhoon last night. But we also know how the typhoon can clear air and when it passe[s], it makes us feel like they made a new air, and almost [a] new world. Nature having many faces makes us want to express [it] in different ways as well,” he says. “In musical ways.”
A multi-instrumentalist, Kurosawa on drums is an insistent but discreet presence in the band’s immersive mix, with rhythms more brush-stroked than struck. But he contests the idea that he is a “quiet” drummer. “I think that drumming is the most primitive instrument,” he says, “and when I play I feel like more of expressing or maybe acting rather than playing an instrument.”
Kikagaku Moyo play Moonfest 2016 in downtown West Palm Beach on Saturday, Oct. 29, on the Respectable Street stage, 518 Clematis Street. Tickets for Moonfest are $10 and up. Visit moonfest.me. Kikagaku Moyo are in Miami on Friday, Oct. 28 Ghost Drag presents at Gramps w/ Timothy Eerie, Similar Prisoners and Mo’Booty. Tickets $10.
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~ Sean Piccoli
Kikagaku Moyo | Credit: Jamie Wdziekonski
