Kinoko Teikoku

This Tokyo-based band’s composer, vocalist and guitarist Chiaki Sato is a boyish, beautiful woman from Iwate in the northern part of Japan. First as an actress, now as a musician, she has been consistently telling stories about things from her daily life.

“I like cats, but I am allergic to them. I like to have cats close but I can’t hold them,” she said in an interview with “anan.” This painful feeling is the main theme of Kinoko Teikoku’s (きのこ帝国) new album, “Neko to Allergy”, meaning “Cats and Allergy.”

Below you can stream a recent single from the album, “Kaiju no Ude no Naka” (怪獣の腕の中), or “In the Arms of a Monster”. Describing the song in a conversation with “pia” web zine, the singer said: “Piano’s main minimal phrase keeps repeating from the start to the end, and other instruments add intonation in the right places.”

In the song, Chiaki sings: “You don’t need to hurt anyone anymore.” It seems that Chiaki herself was a monster who used to hurt someone, at least that’s what she thinks. And it might be a mission she wanted to accomplish with this third album, which shows her a graceful monster who helps other monsters like she once was.

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Kinoko Teikoku on Twitter, www.

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