![From Pitchfork: “Ruby and Alaska winkingly dubbed their sound “Noh-wave,” referencing No Wave and Noh, the classical form of Japanese musical drama.
On their recent self-made, self-titled album (now available on Bandcamp), the duo draw inspiration from their respective Asian-Canadian upbringings as they “negotiate clashes between dominant cultures and those who are oppressed” by fusing Western and Eastern sounds. Like stoner-rock imaginings of Chinese opera and flower-child psychedelia, the music blends philosophies of Buddhism, meditation, and mantra with the band’s love of extreme sounds like black metal, industrial, and noise. Their name, for example, pins a reference to the Buddhist deity Yamantaka with a song title from doom metal band Sleep’s Dopesmoker. Alaska says their ideal sound would “take Iron Butterfly and the Melvins and put them together.”
“One of our favorite bands is Boris. I’m historically a big hardcore, punk, and metal-head. I’ve only liked the most brutal music. A lot of my ideas and theatrics came from seeing [Canadian death metal band] Cryptopsy play their reunion show in Montreal, around 2004. They carried them out in coffins and they were eating worms on stage. I always loved that demonic, over-the-top, theatric show, and we try to embody that in a more staid kind of way. We’re always operating between our cutesy influences of anime and Manga, and these extreme sounds of industrial and power noise.”
read the article here: http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/8752-yamantaka-sonic-titan/](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxnkcinGuQ1qhq12oo1_1280.jpg)
Jan 11 -
From Pitchfork: “Ruby and Alaska winkingly dubbed their sound “Noh-wave,” referencing No Wave and Noh, the classical form of Japanese musical drama.
On their recent self-made, self-titled album (now available on Bandcamp), the duo draw inspiration from their respective Asian-Canadian upbringings as they “negotiate clashes between dominant cultures and those who are oppressed” by fusing Western and Eastern sounds. Like stoner-rock imaginings of Chinese opera and flower-child psychedelia, the music blends philosophies of Buddhism, meditation, and mantra with the band’s love of extreme sounds like black metal, industrial, and noise. Their name, for example, pins a reference to the Buddhist deity Yamantaka with a song title from doom metal band Sleep’s Dopesmoker. Alaska says their ideal sound would “take Iron Butterfly and the Melvins and put them together.”
“One of our favorite bands is Boris. I’m historically a big hardcore, punk, and metal-head. I’ve only liked the most brutal music. A lot of my ideas and theatrics came from seeing [Canadian death metal band] Cryptopsy play their reunion show in Montreal, around 2004. They carried them out in coffins and they were eating worms on stage. I always loved that demonic, over-the-top, theatric show, and we try to embody that in a more staid kind of way. We’re always operating between our cutesy influences of anime and Manga, and these extreme sounds of industrial and power noise.”
read the article here: http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/8752-yamantaka-sonic-titan/
"This time he is close to her, he speaks to her. She welcomes him without surprise. They are without memories, without plans. Time builds itself painlessly around them. Their only landmarks are the flavor of the moment they are living and the markings on the walls." - La Jetee
