Back To The Barbican

Me and that Swiss Adam bloke are currently engaged in a fiercely fought game of Japanese psych band tag (although he may not know that yet).

I opened with Nagisa Ni Te. He raised the stakes with Yura Yura Teikoku. It requires a strong response so I'm going with Barbican Estate, originally from Tokyo but now based in London, much closer to the brutalist block from which they took their name (and where I used to work many years ago).

To make sure they were the right choice I went to watch them live in the hipster haven of Hackney last week. My friend Mr F saw them last year and has been raving about them ever since. He was right to do so, they were great. Their records don't fully prepare you for the storm of sound they conjure up live.

Barbican Estate are Miri on vocals, bass, flute and mellotron and Kazuki Toneri on guitar and songwriting. Koh Hamada has drummed on all their records to date but he's back in Japan so for gigs they have a rotating cast of drummers (probably because the poor buggers need to go for a lie down after a few sets). Go and see them if they come to your town.

You can find their back catalogue on Bandcamp. I have picked a track from each of their two most recent EPs, "Viscum" (2024) and "The Fall" (2022).

"Barn Burning" - Barbican Estate

"Reconquista" - Barbican Estate