With the release of their 2021’s debut Shrirushi and 2023’s Hagata, Montréal-based Japanese psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays TEKE :: TEKE quickly cemented an explosive, genre-defying blend of psych rock, surf rock, experimental music and traditional Japanese instrumentation paired with the distinct vocals and visual artist of frontperson Maya Kuroki. The Canadian outfit’s adventurous compositions and electrify live performances have held to widespread international praise, including from The New Yorker, The Times and Billboard Canada.
Last year, TEKE :: TEKE expanded upon their international profile by contribution original compositions to Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
Recently, the Montréal-based band have teased studio sessions for their highly-anticipated third album while going through recent a lineup change: The band has gone from a septet to a sextet while featuring a new rhythm section of Camilly (bass) and Oli Bernachez (percussion). Their newest single “Shura,” which was part of those teased studio sessions was released today through Kill Rock Stars.
The endlessly shifting “Shura” continues their remarkable run of playfully adventurous and cinematic material, blending psych rock, film scores, post-punk and traditional Japanese folk instrumentation rooted in their distinct spirited and punchy moxie before closing out with a cacophonous crescendo.
Deriving its title from an abbreviated form of Ashura (or Asura), a divine figure, whose name appears across many cultures. Often associated with a relentless, almost reckless fighting nature, the figure also represents intense struggle and conflict, while continually transforming through those experiences.
Drawing from ancient mythology and Buddhist philosophy, “Shura” explores the beauty of struggle, transformation and perseverance with a deeply human reflection on the realities of fighting through life’s seemingly endless challenges — with your dignity most intact. The song opens with the band’s Maya Kuroki singing “Shogyo Mujo,” a Buddhist expression that translates into English as “the impermanence of all things,” and is famously echoed in the opening lines of the Japanese epic, The Tale of the Heike. But rather than just simply embracing the philosophical conceit that everything is temporary, “Shura” actively questions who gets the privilege of contemplating such ideas from a place of comfort and protection, while others are in the muck and grime of every day life, desperately fighting to stay afloat. And yet, there’s something beautiful, deeply human and extraordinary when one blooms with all of their strength.
“‘Shura’ was the first song idea we explored for new music,” the band’s Sei Nakauchi Pelletier explains. “The various musical elements that make up the song emerged over a fairly long period of time in the dead of winter and the song went through several versions before settling on this one. Unconsciously, as if to honor the song’s lyrics about changes and impermanence, the music, while raw and heavy like the figure that is ‘Ashura’, also took on a somewhat unpredictable form, with a sudden change of pace for the song’s instrumental build-up finale.”
Directed by the band’s Maya Kuroki, the accompanying video for “Shura” is a mind-bending journey through the beautiful and odd muck, slime and mess of human life.