Skip to content

Mitsune

Berlin-based Mitsune live on KEXP December 8, 2024.

Robert Rackley
Robert Rackley

Featuring a heavy dose of Nippon by way of Berlin, Germany, Mitsune brings their blend of traditional folk sounds with a proggy psychedelic flair to KEXP. The songs center around the shamisen playing of Shiomi Kawaguchi and Youka Snell but have the rhythm backing of bass and drums. Colorful traditional costumes enhance the power of the music in what is almost as much of a visual as audio delight.

I’ve been coming back to this video quite a bit. I’m not sure anything could be farther from the Byzantine chants that will accompany the Pascha celebration at my Orthodox Church tonight, but I’m enjoying the thought of the contrast.

Mitsune - Live on KEXP (YouTube)

NoiseSaturday Night Video
Robert Rackley

Robert Rackley

Mere Christian, aspiring minimalist, inveterate notetaker, budget audiophile and paper airplane mechanic.

Related Posts

Members Public

No Carbon Copies

Damon Krukowski from Galaxie 500 writes about the vitality of live music — not just music experienced in person, but also live albums. I started collecting live albums— bootlegs in particular — because they helped me hear how musicians actually play their instruments. Growing up in the heyday of 1960s and ’70s

No Carbon Copies
Members Public

Let Me Take You Out

Listening to “Let Me Take You Out” by Class Actress in 2025 feels like hearing the sound of promise unfulfilled. When the single from their first EP, Journal of Ardency came out in 2010, it seemed like the start of a band destined to make a mark. The song was

Members Public

Long After Midnight

Few musicians are as prolific as Jenn Wasner, the creative force behind Flock of Dimes. She has made much critically acclaimed music as both as Wye Oak and Flock of Dimes as well as collaborating with a host of others on their tunes My favorite project of hers is the