Take a deep breath, this one doesn’t let up for a second! Stockholm-based trio Kyosaku create a swirling maelstrom of sound from guitar, bass and drums that doesn’t so much press you back in your seat with its intensity as send you tumbling out the door and down the road.
Recorded in September 2023 under their previous name of Missnöje, the group waste no time setting the pace but charge out of the gates as though this might be the last chance they've got. Finn Loxbo's squalling electric guitar and electronics setup races around the room whilst Elsa Bergman's gnarled and driven electric bass effortlessly weaves between the gaps with a playing style that is no less nimble for it's stomach-rumbling brawn. Through it all, Ryan Packard's seemingly indefatigable drumming rucks and surges in a way that leaves you reeling.
This is no empty bedlam though; rather, there's a euphoric, galvanising joy to the sheer, relentless energy of it all. Kyosaku create the clamour; all you have to do is give yourself up to it.
In Zen Buddhism, the keisaku is a flat wooden stick or slat used during periods of meditation to remedy sleepiness or lapses of concentration by administering a strike or series of strikes. No worries here, the strikes come thick and fast with an unrelenting fervour that should almost have you levitating by the end. But the Zen aspect is not lost, simply approached from a different direction. Noise can be meditative too, and Kyosaku create such an Augean tumult that by the end of this set's 35+ minutes you're left with a mind that feels shiny, gleaming and new.
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Recorded by Billy Steiger
Mixed and mastered by Oli Barrett
Cover photo by Erik Viklund
Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC
Tracklisting:
1. 11.9.23 - 37.02
Absolutely relentless. There is this image in my mind. An image of an expansive turbulent sea dotted with small islands and waves crashing around. The picture appears to have been taken while inside motion, perhaps moving quickly across the water as most objects in the image are out of focus. Everything is a blur but still you can make out the trees on the island and the foam on some of the waves. The image retains its shape and coherence even when it appears to be captured at lightning speed.
Finn Loxbo / electric guitar and electronics
Elsa Bergman / electric bass
Ryan Packard / drums and electronics