The night was full of pleasant surprises, ranging from seeing friends that havent been seen in a while, to hip guys and sexy girls, to a "furry" cat and a guy with a mouth mask walking around with the cat. We find music just as surprising, starting with the drive and swing of Cinemechanica's alt-rock, to the driving fast Japenese headliners called Melt-Banana who we realize later were the "furry" cat and her guy. And although we were mesmerized by the headliners, our spotlight shone that night on the delight of AkuYou's experimental/noise performance.
AkuYou is a five piece with guitar by Kim Chee, vocals by Clara Clamp, sax by Zach Hollback, bass vocals and noise by MEGA, and Shane Patrick on drums. Their music is found in a genre that could be considered dark/experimental/noise/goth and as fun as this genre sounds, a seriousness is garnered, in the ability to find the greatest utilization of elements of music and sound, in their compostitions.
http://musicmaniax.org/index.php/pages/joomla-content/all-categories/52-nice-times/102-akuyou-the-earl-november-5-2011#sigFreeIdada16b5ba1
Their music carries a fast paced, etheral droning, that is performed in their own spacious kingdom of song and delight, of free reign and design. They are seasoned veterans with a tenured tonality that brings a solidarity between the vaious components of instrumentation, in their music. A calm, patient confidence in each element playing its role, elicits the desired intent of their compositions.
http://musicmaniax.org/index.php/pages/joomla-content/all-categories/52-nice-times/102-akuyou-the-earl-november-5-2011#sigFreeId3db9b34d5f
Guitarist Kim Chee, faces away from the crowd, but she covers every part of sound and lead guitar with a fullness and profeciency hard to compare. She covers melodic parts and runs reverbs and delays to create rhythms. Clara Clamp's vocals are definitely a force that reigns over mountain tops and valleys of this grandiose land. Her voice is a heavy-weigh blow, pushing foward in the sound and completing the deliverence of the overall composition. Zach Hollback performance on sax is seasoned and and emotional. He makes a body that was already full, very rich indeed. MEGA rocks a well metered bubbling that resounds the etheral drone in the bottom while planting ideas of noise and sound througout. The drummer brings the finish with the boom and pop on the bottom, staying solid in meter and pace and driving each song through, adding density, force and purpose.
http://musicmaniax.org/index.php/pages/joomla-content/all-categories/52-nice-times/102-akuyou-the-earl-november-5-2011#sigFreeIda198afdeaa
The Earl is a great room, that despite being found in the midst of concrete, seems to always elicit a warm romance in the sound and in the night. This room lent itself very well to bring out the nuances of AkuYou this night. AkuYou carry many elements in their sound, and that sound is organized and coherent, yet stretches the boundries of what a person can hear in a song. From rumbling booming bass, to etheral and free delays and reverbs, to wonderful song found in the nature, of instrument and voice, grouped with this room, made for a rich listening experience and gave us a new band to dig. The band's name is AkuYou. Check 'em out.
Here's their facebook bandpage where you can checkout some AkuYou tunes.