Yama Warashi Releases New Video For Single “Jyomon Doki Doki”
The new single from taken from the upcoming ‘Boiled Moon’ album by Bristol-based psych/art-rock outfit Yama Warashi.
New album due 16th November via Small Pond Recordings
“This is dream pop from another realm entirely”– THE SKINNY
“Liltingly folky and malevolently unhinged”– LOUD AND QUIET
“Jyomon Doki Doki” is the second single to be lifted from the upcoming ‘Boiled Moon’ album by Bristol-based psych/art-rock outfit Yama Warashi. This follows the folkloric and fanciful “Kofun No Uta” single (out now), which introduced the record with early support on the likes of Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone(BBC 6Music), Late Junction (BBC R3), BBC Introducing, and in features on BBC World Service and BBC R4.
Yama Warashi is the project of Yoshino Shigihara, a Japanese musician and visual artist whose past endeavours include cult favourites Zun Zun Egui (Bella Union), of which she was a co-founder. Inspired by Japanese folk dance, free jazz and tribal African music, and heavily saturated in psychedelia, Yama Warashi’s songs are lyrically outlandish and charming, melodically addictive and mythical; the band name translates from Shigihara’s native tongue as “small childlike mountain spirit”.
The new material is set to build on the success of Yama Warashi’s 2016 debut album, ‘Moon Egg’, which won an eager fanbase and picked up high profile press and radio plaudits. Live, they have graced festival stages including Latitude, Green Man, WOMAD and Shambala, to add to support with the likes of Flamingods, This is the Kit and Dakha Brakha. Shigihara also guests from time to time on keys and percussion with other bands including Rozi Plain’s live outfit. Following another busy summer of festivals and headline shows, Yama Warashi will be embarking on a full album tour in November 2018.
The songs on the new album dive deep into stories of both highly personal experiences and wider cultural phenomena, as a shape-shifting, otherworldly groove takes hold. As with “Kofun No Uta”before it,“Jyomon Doki Doki”builds an immersive and escapist soundscape around the fascinating Japanese tradition of mysterious terracotta figures. While the former song brought a hazy, ethereal vision of Haniwa figures (which adorned graves in the ancient Yayoi era) waking up at sunrise and becoming animate, “Jyomon Doki Doki”goes on to conjure playful, celebratory images of these Haniwa meeting a different type of ancient pottery figure, the Dogu (from the even earlier Jyomon period). Illuminated by group vocals and Mauritian-inspired drum patterns, this fantastical flight of imagination is also heightened by a play on words in Japanese.
“Jyomon Doki is a pottery made in the Jyomon period, but “doki doki” in Japanese is an onomatopoeic phrase for the sound of a heart beating at a quickened pace”, Shigihara explains.“It is used to refer to moments when attractive people stand very close to you, moments of nervousness, excitement, near misses, etc… I was thinking, if these clay figures from different periods of ancient times meet, might they make friends? Fall in love? Would they have parties or rituals together? The title, and closing lyric, comes from the Haniwa’s point of view, meeting clay figures from a different period (Jyomon) and their hearts are pounding (Doki Doki).
Originally from Ashiya city, near Osaka, multi-instrumentalist Yoshino Shigihara discovered her love of playing piano aged three, kicking off a lifelong musical curiosity. After a period of exploring other artistic avenues, she picked up the piano again on moving to Bristol and finding herself brimming once again with inspiration. Following the success of their early releases, in 2017 Yama Warashi were awarded funding from the PRS Foundation, and they recorded their new album with Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, M.Ward, Perfume Genius) at The Playpen in Bristol; they have hit upon a truly unique and impactful sound that sees Shigihara taking major leaps in compositional complexity, songwriting and artistic freedom, backed by an impressive and close-knit ensemble of talent.
YAMA WARASHI ‘BOILED MOON’ TOUR DATES:
November:
18th – LONDON, UK – Enjoy Sugoi @ Scala
21st – CARDIFF, UK – GWIDHW
23rd – BURSTON, UK – The Burston Crown
24th – COVENTRY, UK – Tin Arts
30th – PARIS, FR – Le Zorba
December:
1st – GENEVA, CH – Festival faces
5th – BRISTOL, UK – Old Malt House
8th – BIRMINGHAM, UK – tbc
12th – MANCHESTER, UK – Klondyke
13th – GLASGOW, UK – The Glad Café
15th – NEWCASTLE, UK – Cluny 2
16th – STOCKTON, UK – The Waiting Room
http://smallpondrec.co.uk
https://www.yamawarashi.com/
No Comments