Galaxilympics

Pikacyu-Makoto is an intergalactic love and peace duo, featuring two figureheads of underground Japanese music: Pika from Afrirampo and Makoto Kawabata of legendary psychedelic avatars Acid Mothers Temple. As a duo they embrace both sides of the coin - drums and guitar, chaos and order, male and female, yin and yang, the angel and the devil. Pika brings her skills of mystifying performance to the table, all free-drum bluster and vocals veering between shrine maiden and wild spirit. Kawabata's guitar-work moves from a roar to a whisper, a yell to a sob, he's working on the same canvas of extremes. The aim of their unity is to write truly celestial hymns for the outer world and odes of love for the inner cosmic context. In 2011, they released their first album Om Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From Darkside (REPOSE 027CD, 2011). In 2016, they spent two weeks touring through Europe whilst writing their new album Galaxilympics, suffused with the outreaching sound and message of their impulsive live performances. Galaxilympics is an album of contrasts. "Space Sumo" kicks off the record in explosive style. Pikacyu's drums jitter, crash and stumble, but steadfastly refuse to groove. Makoto attacks his guitar, cloaking himself in reverb to produce a wall-of-sound, alternating between melody and noise. "Funifunikonefuni" follows with it's frenzied take on pop music, bubbling with energy and Pika's multiple vocal layers. "I'll Forgive" is chant-like in it's devotion to following the tumbling melody line of the song even to absurd and unpredictable dimensions. "Pika Mako Hall" is a more serene affair, with whispered echoes and guitar drones swirling amongst bursts of rapid sequencer ambience. "Castle Of Sand" picks up on this more spacious approach with slowly developing programmed electronics, before the title track erupts with gurgling synths, soaring guitar trails, and Pika's most searching vocal yet. The album concludes in reflective manner with the suitably titled "Sayonownara", a song as much in the present as it is in the act of saying farewell. It's positively elegiac with washes of cymbal and deep acres of guitar drone for the first five minutes before Pika's drums take things up a gear and into more psychedelic out-rock terrain. Galaxilympics is a triumph of opposites united. It's also a portal into the world of two musicians who find peace and semblance through their interaction.