Koenji Hyakkei
Cafe Oto, Dalston, London.
More information about Koenji Hyakkei tickets
£25 (inc. fees) - Cafe Oto - 31st May
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Koenji Hyakkei is a Japanese Zeuhl band formed by Yoshida Tatsuya (of the renowned drum and bass duo Ruins.) and Kubota Aki (the first singer who passed away last year) in 1991. In the early period of the band activity, they took over the musicality of Kubota's predecessor band MALINCONIA, and aimed for fusion of Kubota's operatic voice and punk rock. By the time they released the first album in 1994, the band got progressive rock color stronger, becoming a Magma like sound as saying to put a threatening chorus on the irregular beat unison. The language of the lyrics is a coined word, which is also greatly influenced by European languages such as Magma's Kobaian, Italian and German. However, Yoshida's lyrics have no meaning, only emphasis on the sound of words. on their album Angherr Shisspa in 2005, they have replaced the guitar player to soprano sax. With this change in instrumentation, their style has veered into a new direction to match the change in tone color, shift to Chamber Rock or Rock in Opposition style, also elements of jazz included.Through their evolution of style, their rhythmic and formal complexity have expanded greatly, incorporating polyrhythms, asymmetrical time signatures, as well as more complex and varied sections, often containing polyphony and counterpoint. in this period band has been played in world wide Prog Festival such as FIMAV (2007) Nearfest (2008) Gouveia art Rock (2008) Rock In Opposition (2009). After a couple of years the suspension of the activity, the band resumed activities with a new guitarist. on 2018 they released the studio album for the first time in 13 years. Touring Europe with a new bassist for the first time in six years since 2019.