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CD
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UTR 095CD
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Pikacyu-Makoto is an intergalactic love and peace duo, featuring two figureheads of underground Japanese music: Pika from Afrirampo and Makoto Kawabata of legendary psychedelic avatars Acid Mothers Temple. As a duo they embrace both sides of the coin -- drums and guitar, chaos and order, male and female, yin and yang, the angel and the devil. Pika brings her skills of mystifying performance to the table, all free-drum bluster and vocals veering between shrine maiden and wild spirit. Kawabata's guitar-work moves from a roar to a whisper, a yell to a sob, he's working on the same canvas of extremes. The aim of their unity is to write truly celestial hymns for the outer world and odes of love for the inner cosmic context. In 2011, they released their first album Om Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From Darkside (REPOSE 027CD, 2011). In 2016, they spent two weeks touring through Europe whilst writing their new album Galaxilympics, suffused with the outreaching sound and message of their impulsive live performances. Galaxilympics is an album of contrasts. "Space Sumo" kicks off the record in explosive style. Pikacyu's drums jitter, crash and stumble, but steadfastly refuse to groove. Makoto attacks his guitar, cloaking himself in reverb to produce a wall-of-sound, alternating between melody and noise. "Funifunikonefuni" follows with its frenzied take on pop music, bubbling with energy and Pika's multiple vocal layers. "I'll Forgive" is chant-like in its devotion to following the tumbling melody line of the song even to absurd and unpredictable dimensions. "Pika Mako Hall" is a more serene affair, with whispered echoes and guitar drones swirling amongst bursts of rapid sequencer ambience. "Castle Of Sand" picks up on this more spacious approach with slowly developing programmed electronics, before the title track erupts with gurgling synths, soaring guitar trails, and Pika's most searching vocal yet. The album concludes in reflective manner with the suitably titled "Sayonownara", a song as much in the present as it is in the act of saying farewell. It's positively elegiac with washes of cymbal and deep acres of guitar drone for the first five minutes before Pika's drums take things up a gear and into more psychedelic out-rock terrain. Galaxilympics is a triumph of opposites united. It's also a portal into the world of two musicians who find peace and semblance through their interaction.
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LP
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UTR 095LP
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LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Edition of 500. Pikacyu-Makoto is an intergalactic love and peace duo, featuring two figureheads of underground Japanese music: Pika from Afrirampo and Makoto Kawabata of legendary psychedelic avatars Acid Mothers Temple. As a duo they embrace both sides of the coin -- drums and guitar, chaos and order, male and female, yin and yang, the angel and the devil. Pika brings her skills of mystifying performance to the table, all free-drum bluster and vocals veering between shrine maiden and wild spirit. Kawabata's guitar-work moves from a roar to a whisper, a yell to a sob, he's working on the same canvas of extremes. The aim of their unity is to write truly celestial hymns for the outer world and odes of love for the inner cosmic context. In 2011, they released their first album Om Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From Darkside (REPOSE 027CD, 2011). In 2016, they spent two weeks touring through Europe whilst writing their new album Galaxilympics, suffused with the outreaching sound and message of their impulsive live performances. Galaxilympics is an album of contrasts. "Space Sumo" kicks off the record in explosive style. Pikacyu's drums jitter, crash and stumble, but steadfastly refuse to groove. Makoto attacks his guitar, cloaking himself in reverb to produce a wall-of-sound, alternating between melody and noise. "Funifunikonefuni" follows with its frenzied take on pop music, bubbling with energy and Pika's multiple vocal layers. "I'll Forgive" is chant-like in its devotion to following the tumbling melody line of the song even to absurd and unpredictable dimensions. "Pika Mako Hall" is a more serene affair, with whispered echoes and guitar drones swirling amongst bursts of rapid sequencer ambience. "Castle Of Sand" picks up on this more spacious approach with slowly developing programmed electronics, before the title track erupts with gurgling synths, soaring guitar trails, and Pika's most searching vocal yet. The album concludes in reflective manner with the suitably titled "Sayonownara", a song as much in the present as it is in the act of saying farewell. It's positively elegiac with washes of cymbal and deep acres of guitar drone for the first five minutes before Pika's drums take things up a gear and into more psychedelic out-rock terrain. Galaxilympics is a triumph of opposites united. It's also a portal into the world of two musicians who find peace and semblance through their interaction.
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CD
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REPOSE 027CD
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This is the eagerly-awaited debut album from Japanese underground legends Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner) and Pikacyu (Afrirampo). Combining their trademark master musicianship, out-there sonic attack and off-the-wall weirdness, OM Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From Darkside is the exciting sound of another legend in the making. Equal parts psychedelia, warped pop, full-on Japnoise and avant-garde passages, it's sure to appeal to their many followers worldwide. Special first edition of 1,000 copies only (for the world) shrink-wrapped CD packaged inside a 350 gram gatefold card sleeve with reverse board printing. Subsequent represses will be in standard packaging. Pikacyu*Makoto is an alliance between two figureheads of underground Japanese psych/pop. No strangers to one another, the pair have not only gigged together with their respective bands but also recorded together, when these two outfits temporarily fused in 2005 to become Acid Mothers Afrirampo (releasing an album of the same name). Now they have distilled their collaboration, all other players being stripped away to leave the core of Pikacyu's manic drums and vocals, and Makoto's schizoid guitar conjurings. OM Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From Darkside is unlike anything either culprit has produced before, both structured and freeform, tuneless and beautiful. Pikacyu's drums pummel, jitter, crash and stumble, but steadfastly refuse to groove. She layers her voice several times, competing with maniacally pitch-shifted versions of herself to bring you what is, in their words, "a story about the cosmic shaman Pikacyu vs. the master of the darkness Makoto... including the full love from the universe!!" Makoto attacks his guitar, cloaking himself in reverb to produce a wall of sound, alternating between melody and noise. "OM Marijana FU" resembles field recordings of a gang of lady monks doing chants in the monastery, played back on dying tape Walkmans. Then you're thrown straight into the deep-end of one of the album's epics -- "Birth Star." Those holy women are joined by propulsive drumming, each guitar chord leaving contrails that weave together in a cathedral of reverb, forming a tapestry of noise that threatens to clash but never does. On the frenetic "Wild Rise," the Western listener, ignorant of the language, is eventually left with the impression of wordless chants tapping wells of emotion that lie beyond the reach of vocabulary. The instrumental "Pigamelan-Magamelan" on the other hand, represents a total gear-shift, its dry sound, attack-laden guitar runs and avoidance of time signature invoking the exploding-note theory of Captain Beefheart. "Minakata Loid" brings drums reminiscent of early Four Tet, while the guitar emits high-pitched detonations from the far-end of an empty auditorium. "Back To Your House Over The Rainbow" exposes the knife-edge of Pikacyu's most extreme vocalizations, sounding like the yodels of a spirit trying to escape its own skin.
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