A great and powerful Japanese psychedelic group have released their 3rd album this May and titled it “House in The Tall Grass”. Having existed since 2012, Moyo have already produced a lot of beautiful psychedelic music that draws on a spiritual understanding of their surroundings. Their music is concerned, in their words, with a “[freeing] of the mind and body and  building a bridge between the supernatural and the present.” As a listener, the music they make on this album feels tranquil: you’ll find many droning chords, many slowly evolving, improvised moments. If you are looking for something deeply hypnotic and soul soothing, look no further.

There is a certain simplicity to the kinds of harmonies on “House in The Tall Grass” and a tendency to repeat and revisit phrases. In the same way that jazz or punk musicians might say making their music is a process of speaking a specific language, I believe there is a specific language that Moyo intends to speak in. It’s a vocabulary that doesn’t feel theoretical or cerebral, but rather elemental and obvious. It certainly draws on eastern scales and western rhythms too. So what is this language expressing? To me – a very deep sense of optimism. A respect for the earth and for sound and for rhythm.

Interestingly, for all of their lyrical and musical allusions to nature, Moyo has a taste for sparse, precise playing and a lot of their arrangement choices are very rhythmically rigid. Individually, I would even call them cold. But when the entire band is tesselating together, these simpler geometric patterns open up and become really complex, really warm sounding. You can get sucked in. It just becomes something new, something much brighter and truly uplifting.

I had the pleasure of seeing them last week and it was a very beautiful show. They all had black hair nearly down to their elbows. They wore tight shirts with floral patterns. It was a small stage, but 5 of them all managed to fit – the drummer sat in back with two on either side – a powerful, robust formation. It oozed security and friendship. I sensed very little in the way of egos. Listen to this album on a set of speakers with some friends around. This kind of music needs room to breathe, some air to push and a group to influence.

Favorite tracks? “Old Snow, White Sun”, “Melted Crystal”