CAT#: ULY014
ARTIST: Kukangendai
TITLE: After
DATE: 08/19/2022
FORMAT: Cassette
PRICE: $15 USD

In most any review of Kukangendai’s astounding 2019 album ‘Palm,’ the music is either called “math rock” outright or some allusion is made to coding, to 1’s and 0’s used in its creation. We, however, contend that the Kukangendai is not concerned with mathematics at all. Kukangendai are geologists, drilling and carving into their abrasive, minimalist vision. For over decade, layer after layer after layer of focused, post-jazz skronk. Now, we arrive at ‘After,’ a seemingly softer terrain, perhaps a bit more giving to the step — yet, still agitating and confounding. In After’s geological experiment, the Kyoto trio attempts to graft two opaque ores together into a single slab of terrain. The results are both gorgeous and menacing. The rocks are speaking to us. We cannot comprehend their words exactly — only that they seem to dare us to go one more layer deeper, into this dark and ancient embrace.

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STREAM: Spotify / Bandcamp / Apple Music