TEKE::TEKE - Montreal, QC

Biography

TEKE::TEKE is a wild, cinematic Japanese psych-rock group based in Montreal.

Featuring traditional Japanese instruments, flute and trombone alongside raging guitars and a pulsing rhythm section, TEKE::TEKE creates a sound reminiscent of 1960’s and 70’s era psychedelic Japanese soundtracks, with an experimental approach and a frenetic, modern twist. Their albums Shirushi and Hagata are out now via Kill Rock Stars. They also recently released the soundtrack album Kage No Iro, which they created for the video game Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.

Recent Press

"The highlight of my weekend was happening upon the Canadian Japanese rock band TEKE::TEKE. […] They were one of those bands, helped by the alternately angry and welcoming charisma of the singer Maya Kuroki, who nobody knew before and everyone was talking about afterwards."
- The Times UK

"Spitfire songs...frenzied mishmash of guitars, trombone, assorted Japanese instruments, and Kuroki’s singing — guttural, physical shrieks in her native tongue — bears a manic energy that bleeds into even the ballads. ....engaging in a cross-continental musical scramble while flirting with detonation."
- The New Yorker

"The band's sound — harnessing the narrative and psychedelic trip of '60s and '70s Japanese film soundtracks, and infecting it with a quintessentially Montreal flair, chic and so impossibly cool the band seemed to redefine the term — had a dissolving effect."
- Exclaim!

"The Montreal pysch band's second album plays like the soundtrack to the craziest cult film never made."
- Brooklyn Vegan

"'Garakuta' is a wild concoction of flutes, psychedelic guitars, unrelenting pace and circuitous fun. Can you imagine Amon Düül tripping on acid in the middle of Japan? Something like that."
- Shindig Magazine

"There is but one TEKE::TEKE, a band that simply defies all expectations, creating cinematic “punk” music at its most imaginative. There’s little that can prepare you for their sound, and most attempts to explain the magic of the Montreal-based septet fall short. Their music demands to be experienced, their record’s as immersive as they are unpredictable."
- Post-Trash

"...this music instantly puts you in a Seijun Suzuki ultra-cool world."
- The Wire

"Mischievous, unrestrained, and daring, the Montreal psych-rock collective’s second album boldly redefines a sound they’d already redefined."
- FLOOD Magazine

"Teke::Teke from Montreal, whose offbeat fusion of Japanese surf-rock, traditional folk and pure punk joy marks them out as something very special indeed."
- The Line of Best Fit