These days in terms of the 'new' you can pretty much have any of the 'old' you might care for musically. Bands that recreate the whole sixties psychedelia down to a tee. Others that replicate the British eighties indie experience as if that particular decade had never ended. Or here with Japanese group Kikagaku Moyo, (their name translates approximately as Geometric Patterns), who explore the murky, giving depths of Can's Ege Bamyasi and the legacy of their own countries Jap Rock movement with great aplomb and delicacy on their most recent record, the wonderfully named House in the Tall Grass.
It's an enchanting album. Derided in the most prominent review that I could find, (on the Quietus website), as a record where almost nothing is happening. I'm happy to disagree with that august internet journal which I often find precious to a quite ridiculous degree. I'd say that the fact that nothing appears to be going on as the whole point of the record's appeal, at least to me. Kikagaku Moyo as pictured below, are unashamedly Hippie in the most far out extreme imaginable, but unlike other bands who also share their musical leanings they seem to have gone beyond the musical surface and thrown themselves utterly into the whole philosophy and lifestyle that so inspire them. House in the Tall Grass is a meditation to spirituality and searching within for peace and beauty and though some might mock the endeavor and intention as affectation of the first order, I'd personally salute them for their mission and add their record to the tottering pile of great albums released in 2016.
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