Japanese avant-garde rock band Khaki seems to be a ray of light that illuminates the future of music.
Khaki seems to embrace everything from modal jazz to classic and progressive rock. They call themselves an immersive rock band.
As their name suggests, we seem to be sinking into their world deeply. And the title of their second full-length album “Hakko” means “Shine a Light”. It is a ray of light that illuminates the future of music.
Khaki started with a cover of Velvet Underground song, and they were also influenced by recent indie rock. All five members write their own music.
As they told the “Rolling Stone Japan“, they don’t hide their sources of quotes, from jazz and classical to current rock bands.
The song “Muyubyo” (“Sleepwalking”), for example, was inspired by the repetitive guitar riffs of King Krule’s “Border Line”. “Karera” (“They”) refers to Men I Trust’s “Billie Toppy”. And “Winter Babe” is from Pavement’s “Summer Babe (Winter Version)”. They take in cool music greedily.
On the other hand, they are probably in the lineage of Japanese avant-garde rock bands such as Moonriders, Tama and Unicorn. All of these rock bands combined traditional Japanese music with foreign rock like XTC. Khaki also put Japanese melodies on the current international rock.
New forms of music always emerge from the interplay between traditional music and the latest music from around the world.
Stream “Hakko” LP on Spotify and Apple Music.
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