Stone Garden E.P.

Stone Garden is the first EP by psychedelic rock band Kikagaku Moyo from Tokyo, Japan. This is the perfect companion recording to their stunning 2016 LP, House in the Tall Grass. While House in the Tall Grass was more of a conventional psych rock album combining American West Coast lo-fi kraut-pop, folk, and guitar jam/improvisational styles within its sound, the semi-instrumental extended play Stone Garden is saturated with noise and straightforward krautrock experimentation.

Here’s something else from the press release:
Stone Garden started in a basement studio in Prague with a nearly continuous session over several days and nights. The original concept was influenced by the raw and seemingly endless jams of psychedelic pioneers. The freeform songs that emerged from these sessions were refined over several months at the band's home in Tokyo where each song was sculpted into an uncommon form. This record enabled the band to experiment not only with instrumentation but also atonality and a playful approach to mixing.

RIYL: PSF records, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Moon Duo, Bardo Pond, and Feral Ohms.

FCC CLEAN!
Recommended Tracks: 1, 2, 3, 4

1. (6:22) ***Backlash – Instrumental dirty and fuzzy upbeat track full of energy and distortion. Epic.
2. (8:47) *Nobakitani – More of a standard psych-folk recording driven by a sitar-sounding guitar. Medium tempo. Long buildups.
3. (3:54) **Trilobites – A more contained sequel to the opening track. Less distorted but more cosmic.
4. (6:08) ***In a Coil – Upbeat fuzzer searching for the fifth dimension.
5. (4:11) Floating Leaf – Hybrid of track one and three. Still noisy and intergalactic.