We Acediasts - We Acediasts

We Acediasts - We Acediasts Way back in the summer of 2001, Justin Simon (now of NY's Invisible Conga People and Mesh-Key Records, and largely responsible for introducing Yura Yura Teikoku to the States) brought his band from Tokyo to NYC to record with James Murphy. This was when DFA was just forming its musical identity and Can and other seminal "Krautrock" was still mostly for those "in the know," but Simon and his unknown Japanese group formed a bond with Murphy, and made two albums in those sessions. One was the very grainy, lo-fi, largely live-recorded, quasi Krautrock/post-punk excursion that became the Pre Acediasts album. Fast-forward to 2012 and we finally have the proper studio LP from We Acediasts, also recorded way back when in the DFA studio but unavailable until now. And though it's more than a decade old, with influences from deep in our "Then" section, it comes across surprisingly "right now."

In the same way Invisible Conga People seamlessly blends vintage synth and Krautrock with modern electronic elements to create its own hypnotic, psychedelic sound, We Acediasts fuse elements of no wave/spazzy art punk with the modern edge of the Boredoms (pre- and post-Kraut influence) and Sonic Youth. While many who drew inspiration from no wave in the early aughts could barely manage to do more than one type of song, We Acediasts took that angular bombast and quite logically wove in the expansive, arching elements of Sonic Youth, P.I.L. and even This Heat (and at times, even some of the casualness of the Fall) to make a very savvy and effective sound of their own. It could have been the musicians' common interest in Phew -- the Can-collaborating Japanese singer who worked with everyone from Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit to Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alexander Hacke -- that gave them the inspiration to make such intensely groovy/subdued, yet angular and artful music. Three Japanese dudes and an American ex-pat taking these erratic elements and harnessing them with the groove of Krautrock and the moody greyness of post-punk had the references to make music that sounds as fresh now as it was probably confusing to laymen's ears then. And that's just the A-side; the B-side flips things a bit and takes a more rhythmic, ritualistic approach, blending the patient groove of Can with the royal/celestial vibe of Amon Duul II, but while adding a few twists and turns of their own. In the end, this record is much more than the sum of its estimable influences, and despite the long gestation period, it is right on time!
Scott Mou, Other Music 

Tokyo group with Masaki Takamoto, Yuta Suganuma (Shintaro Sakamoto), Fumi Mori and Justin Simon (Invisible Conga People), active 2000-2002. Originally a duo of Simon and Takamoto, later expanding to a 4-piece. Played regularly in Tokyo and played one show in NYC when there to record with the DFA in 2001 

https://weacediasts.bandcamp.com/