Go Kurosawa

For a dozen years, drummer, singer, songwriter, and label head Go Kurosawa has been a linchpin of the international psychedelic community, a crucial force in liberating wonderful weirdo rock from new corners of the world. Kurosawa is a founding member of Kikagaku Moyo, whose Kanji name referenced the phantom visual patterns that cross one’s eyelids after an all-night trip or, in their case, an epic jam session. Featuring sitar locked in grooves with velvet-toned electric guitars and drums that preferred steady trots, Kikagaku Moyo always conjured the daydreams of a lazy summer afternoon, when doing the occasional chore even felt like a rare delight. The band was also the flagship act of Guruguru Brain, a label started to broadcast a new generation of Japanese psychedelia to the rest of the world.

Before its breakup in 2022, Kikagaku Moyo was often a remote band, with Go Kurosawa building songs in his Rotterdam studio from sound files deposited by the other members. After the breakup, Kurosawa began replicating that process for himself, jamming each day with a new instrument and no plan except to pursue some inspiring sound. That strategy led to his remarkable 2025 solo debut, soft shakes, a map of musical interests as broad as his skills. Where “green thing” is a piano-and-acoustic gem that suggests some warped Windham Hill beauty, “autowalk” imagines Miles Davis sitting in with Kraftwerk. And on exquisite finale “cloud rock,” he rips into high-and-fried electric psych that rivals the heaviest stuff of his former band. It’s a thrilling indication of all the room he has left to roam.