Back in January, Tokyo psych-rock band Kikagaku Moyo announced their “indefinite hiatus,” stating they would be releasing their final album as a band (for the foreseeable future) in May of 2022. Now, they’ve finally shared a tracklist, album art and a title: Kumoyo Island (out May 6 on Guruguru Brain). They’ve also shared the lead single off the record, “Cardboard Pile,” along with a trippy video for the track.
With the band’s adopted home base of Amsterdam under lockdown during the pandemic’s height and all touring activities brought to a halt, they returned to Asakusabashi, Tokyo, to record their final, self-produced full-length. On the band’s site, they describe Kumoyo Island as “the fifth studio album & last euphoric mind-trip to Kikagaku Moyo’s imagined island,” adding that it’s “best-suited for counting stars, looking at the ocean and dancing in one’s daydream.”
As for our first preview of the record, “Cardboard Pile” begins as a rush of fuzzy guitars and sitar twang before screeching (almost literally) to a halt and transforming into a dizzying groove for the track’s duration. Colored with horns and dreamy vocals that sound like they were recorded on another planet and sent floating back down to mix in, it feels like a perfect reintroduction to the band’s constantly evolving version of psychedelia that we’ll miss when they take their final bow. In the meantime, this sneak peek promises that their last full-length outing will live up to the hype swirling around it.
As announced in their original breakup statement, the band will be hitting the road for one last tour of the U.S., U.K. and Europe, beginning in Toronto on May 11 and finishing in London on June 26. You can find the full list of final tour dates here.
Check out the “Cardboard Pile” video and the details of Kumoyo Island below. You can pre-order the album here.
Kumoyo Island Art:
Kumoyo Island Tracklist:
01. Monaka
02. Dancing Blue
03. Effe
04. Meu Mar
05. Cardboard Pile
06. Gomugomu
07. Daydream Soda
08. Field of Tiger Lillies
09. Yayoi Iyayoi
10. Nap Song
11. Maison Silk Road
