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Feb 09, 2021 TEKE::TEKE By Caleb Campbell Photography by Andy Jon

Montreal-based Japanese psych punk band TEKE::TEKE first formed in 2018 as a one-off tribute band for Japanese surf guitar legend Takeshi Terauchi but quickly found their ambitions outpacing the limits of the instrumental covers they were playing. With the addition of actress and vocalist Maya Kuroki, the band expanded in new directions, bringing together traditional Japanese instrumentation, twisting psychedelia, surf guitar, and punk attitude for an alluring new-found sound. The band is soon releasing its full-length debut, Shirushi, on the classic underground label Kill Rock Stars. TEKE::TEKE have now returned with their newest single, “Meikyu,” premiering a day early with Under the Radar.

“Meikyu” translates most closely to labyrinth or maze in Japanese. It’s a fitting name for the track, given its instrumental maze of insistent pulsing bass, turbulent tribal drumming, and fluttering psychedelic flutes. The song crescendos through the haze of styles, colored by surf guitar, punk energy, and Kuroki’s expressive vocals. After hitting its height, it then switches on a dime, dropping down for a gentle flute solo before launching back into fiery blasts of trombone and building into the stormy finale. The resulting track is a tense labyrinthian ride through TEKE::TEKE’s style, uniting the band’s influences, both modern and traditional, for a fresh and fascinating take on Japanese psych punk.

The band says of the song, “Right from the start, ‘Meikyu’ was meant to be a darker song. Musically, we wanted a fast-paced repetitive pattern that would have an hypnotic and unnerving effect, hence the one-note guitar riff and the sort of tribal rhythm in the first section. We also wanted to keep the actual drum beat from coming in until later in the song (for the third verse) to build tension and make it ever more satisfying when it finally kicks in… A sure-shot every time we play it live!’‘

Kuroki goes on to say, ‘‘This tension is a perfect match for the lyrics which tell the story of a young character trying to escape the grasp of a twisted spirit that took the form of a labyrinthe-like mansion (‘Meikyu’), in a psychedelic atmosphere slightly inspired by visuals from Japanese art-horror flick Hausu.” Check out the video below and presave the song here. Preorder Shirushi here, out May 7th on Kill Rock Stars Records.