Tokyo trance-psychedelia

Boredoms

The Tokyo psychedelic music scene is known for its trademark noisy acid-drenched guitar mayhems, the sound of which was pioneered by the likes of Les Rallizes Denudes, Fushitsusha and High Rise, carried on by Acid Mothers Temple and others. But at the very end of the 2nd millennium and at the very beginning of the 3rd, a group of electronically informed musicians on the lookout for more chilled out mind expanding trips tried out something other than punching the fuzz and noise into your face and came up with their unique brand of trancey upbeat psychedelia. I present some of my favourite tracks from the scene.

The sound I'm talking about is centred around Boredoms – one of the foremost bands in the Tokyo noise scene since late 80s that went through a remarkable transformation as they mellowed out by the late 90s to start layering more structured soundscapes while keeping it mind-expandingly trippy:

Boredoms' guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto has had many side projects but the most long-lived of them is Rovo, a band immediately distinguishable by its fusion-jazzy approach with two drummers and an electric violin in their ranks:

Another one of Yamamoto's successful offshoots is a collaboration with Bravo Komatsu under the name Guitoo. The song I've chosen builds up in an ethereal and blissful way, it seems simple at first but has many spacey layers going on which erupt as the song takes off with a tasty desert rock riff set on top of an urban breakbeat percussion:

One of the most underrated bands in the Tokyo underground is Hanadensha (translates “flower train”), fronted by former Boredoms bassist Hira. Those interested in a hypnotizing groove with Japanese spoken word vocals and a looping sampled/processed didgeridoo (or sth like that) should lay their ears on this:

OOIOO, a girl band lead by Boredoms' drummer Yoshimi, is hard to categorize. Their music makes some people think of primordial nature, others of tribal dancing. It's calm but not without mind tickling intensity. Here OOIOO convince the listener that they've uncovered the threshold to a New Age somewhere in the forests of Hokkaido: