Kikagaku Moyo

Kikagaku Moyo (in Japanese Kanji 幾何学模様, transliterated Kikagaku Moyō) translates to “geometric patterns”, which the drummer Go Kurosawa suggested as a band name after getting visuals caused by sleep deprivation during a long jam session at night. In a 2014 interview with the It’s Psychedelic Baby! magazine, Go recalls the moment at which he came up with the name: “It means geometric patterns, which I saw on the back of my eyelids after jamming all night long. I was totally in the “zone”, half awake and half asleep, but my hands were tapping the drums involuntarily. Tomo and I both wanted to have a Japanese name with Kanji characters, so it was decided pretty quickly.”.[2]

In the summer of 2012 in Tokyo, Go Kurosawa - who came to be the drummer in what would become Kikagaku Moyo - met Tomo Katsurada - the future guitarist - who had come back from studying film in the US.[3] Having similar interests in music, fashion and movies, they decided to start playing music together. Though Go had played piano and Tomo knew the cello, both of them had little to no prior experience in the instruments they wanted to play in the band. Initially, the two often played together in an old studio where their friend worked, from midnight to morning, the reason for that being the high price of playing in the studio during the day. [4]

Dissatisfied with their sound, Go and Tomo soon went out to search for more people to join the band. They specifically sought people who didn’t have much experience like Go and Tomo themselves, but wanted to play music together. They started with putting up signs and handing out posters at their college. They eventually met their bassist Kotsoguy who was recording sounds from a vending machine on the street for a drone project.[5] Tomo met their second guitarist Daoud Popal in a smoking area at the college Go and Tomo were attending.[6] Around the same time, the band’s sitarist Ryu Kurosawa, who is Go's brother, joined the band after coming back from India.[7] The members didn’t have much in common when it comes to musical taste. Go had a mixed music taste and was the only one listening to psychedelic rock while Tomo preferred power pop, Kotsoguy black metal and Daoud hip-hop. In an interview, Go says “We tried to talk, “What have you been listening to?” We could never share anything. So only after we started playing, after one year, we started sharing.”.[8] Since most of the members weren’t technically proficient, they decided to adopt a psychedelic, meditative style, as an utilitarian approach to play music together. This style is especially present on their self-titled debut album.

Kikagaku Moyo did not find any great success in Japan, one reason for that being the expensive live shows, since Japanese music venues have a system of charging bands instead of paying them for live shows. According to Go Kurosawa in an interview, bands have to pay around 300$ for a 30-35 minute show.[9] Therefore, the band started busking on Tokyo streets, outside of busy train stations.[10] The group also made an attempt to set up psyche festivals around Tokyo, charging about five dollars for entry, with the aim of providing a cheap and accessible music scene. The band did however not gain any major progress either way. In an interview, Go says “[In Japan,] most people don’t like this kind of thing, they like following the rules”. Furthermore, the crowds were mostly made up of foreigners.[11] This inspired the group to go abroad: their first tour took place in Australia where they played the Levitation festival in 2014.

Studio albums

• Kikagaku Moyo (2013, Cosmic Eye/Sound effect)
• Forest of Lost Children (2014, Beyond Beyond is Beyond)
• House in the Tall Grass (2016, Guruguru Brain)
• Masana Temples (2018, Guruguru Brain)
• Deep Fried Grandeur (2021, Husky Pants Records) with Ryley Walker

EPs

• Mammatus Clouds (2014, Sky Lantern/Captcha/Cardinal Fuzz)
• Stone Garden (2017, Guruguru Brain)

Singles

• "Flujo y Reflujo" split with Kinski and Kawabata (2015, God Unknown)
• "Spinning Wheel" split with Moon Duo (2015, Jean Sandwich)
• "Gypsy Davey" / "Mushi No Uta" (2020, Sub Pop)
• "Ouchi Time" (2020, Looking Glass/Mexican Summer)

• Official website
• Guruguru Brain on BandCamp