If you judged Kulu Kulu Garden on their press photo they’d come across as pretty unassuming – they dress casually, seem laid back and certainly don’t come across with much of an in-your-face rock and roll attitude.
That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to hear the sonic barrage of ‘Age Zen Suezen’, the first song from their EP Detorake Yuuenchi. Ryotaro Aoki’s High-voltage punk guitars drive the first half of the song, followed by an intense Boris-influenced feedback-ridden transition into an eerily mellow bridge, finally building back up into an enormous climax with vocalist Kotone Miyahara screaming her head off with all the intensity of a Fever To Tell era Karen O. They sure open with a monster of a track (the first time I heard it I listened about six times in a row), and the rest of the album – although not quite as immediate – lives up to their first impression.
Far France fans will find that Kulu Kulu Garden has some familiar elements: 1) They have a similar indie-rock sound, combining dissonant instruments with melodic song-writing. 2) Far France’s drummer Kyohei has been playing with the band since their previous drummer split and it’s hard to imagine them playing with anyone else. The trio has a sense of dynamics and momentum that demonstrates that they have great chemistry together. The songs on Detorake Yuuenchi are concise, and the EP, clocking in at just over 26 minutes, never drags or gets dull.
Kotone Miyahara’s vocals took me a couple of listens to get used to, her tone is unusual and there are a few places where she’s not pitch-perfect. Ultimately she balances this with great energy in her performance though, and it’s refreshing to hear a bit of raw-ness in an era when everyone and their mother is using autotune. Where Miyahara’s vocals really shine is when she’s at her most intense or her most mellow. She’s great at intense screams and wails during fast songs, and during the acoustic-driven ballad, ‘Mori No Kumasan’, her harmonies come across as ethereally beautiful.
Kulu Kulu Garden write the kind of melodies that really stick in your head – balancing pop songs with a hard-indie sound – and that’s what makes Detorake Yuuenchi such a compelling listen. The first thing that impressed me on this record was their sense of momentum, but what maintains that momentum is that they’re always heading somewhere good. Kulu Kulu Garden’s songs sound spontaneous, but they’re very structured and well constructed – I get the feeling that a lot of time has gone into these songs. Although they’ve recorded a few demos in the past, this is Kulu Kulu Garden’s first official release and they already sound like they’ve been together for a decade. This is an album that is worth getting excited about from a band that is well-worth paying some serious attention to.
Listen: Age Zen Suezen
Video: (This song isn’t on Detorake Yuuenchi but it gives a good idea of Kulu Kulu Garden’s sound).
