I don’t care HOW avant-garde you think your musical taste is. If your favorite “progressive” band doesn’t incorporate some legit OPERA SINGING and freakin’ REED INSTRUMENTS on a regular basis, they’re not trying as hard as long-running Japanese legends KoenjiHyakkei.
Headed by “vocalist/composer/drummer extraordinaire” Tatsuya Yoshida, this group is basically a boiling-hot, Stravinsky-meets-Sex Pistols stew of blaring woodwinds, power chord guitars, shimmering synths, and soaring, operatic vocals delivered by a front-woman “speaking in somersaulting tongues.”
After getting their start in the mid-90s and releasing a string of blistering prog-symphonic fusion records through 2005, the band must have had to catch their breaths and rest their embouchures, so they’ve been pretty quiet for the last 13 years or so. But long last, they’ve returned to announce that their latest album Dhorimviskha will be released on August 31 on CD and digital — with a special “gatefold 2xLP” edition to follow on November 2 — via the St. Louis-based SKiN GRAFT label.
To help get your puny musical mind up to speed, check out a pair of tracks from the new album down below. Then, after you’ve gotten over that woozy feeling of having had your conservative tastes exploded, you can safely head here to pre-order Dhorimviskha in one of its manifold physical/digital manifestations.
Dhorimviskha tracklisting:
01. Vleztemtraiv
02. Levhorm
03. Zjindhaiq
04. Phlessttighas
05. Djebelaki Zomn
06. Palbeth Tissilaq
07. Dhorimviskha
More about: KoenjiHyakkei
