De Lorians

De Lorians

...and sometimes it just turns out that the newest members of the freak music family are a bunch of long-haired Japanese twenty-somethings playing Zappa-loving Canterbury-inspired blissed-out spiritual jazz rippers. If you had that on your predictions list, right on, youll be extra amped. But either way, meet De Lorians, Tokyos newest fire music exports, by way of their self-titled debut. Grown from the always-heady Tokyo music scene and led by Takefumi Ishida, playing sax and synth, all five De Lorians contribute material to what they call pataphysical music. Ranging in age from 22 to 27, the five De Lorians tap into a library of ideas from their precursors, less in retro-loving emulation than for alchemical strategy. The seven tracks here burst with overstuffed Weasels Ripped My Flesh-style action: bonkers horn arrangements, savage guitar solos, constant movement, through-composed sections, improv, surreality, and the occasional peaceful woodwind-dabbled valley. No singing, no poodle play, just constant surprises, rich vibes, and heavy fun. With the whole album packed into 32 zig-zagging minutes, its a compact and powerful first statement for a young band exploding with ideas, and with a lot more under the hood. At De Lorians monthly gigs, there are plenty of more surprises, too. Theres ample improvisation, of course, but some nights they disassemble the sections of their songs, piecing them into new suites that might run longer than the length of their studio debut. Think of this album, perhaps as their (temporarily) definitive ur-suite, a prog-fusion dream of inside-out rhythms and catchy af melodies. Recorded at the Tsubame Studio in Tokyo in September 2018, De Lorians is timeless high-energy unity and barely controlled propulsion, exploding soon from a portal near you.