{"id":13721,"date":"2026-03-29T17:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T21:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wecb.live\/?p=13721"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T23:45:22","slug":"the-best-japanese-shoegaze-band-youve-never-heard-of-kinoko-teikoku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/milkcrate\/the-best-japanese-shoegaze-band-youve-never-heard-of-kinoko-teikoku\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Japanese Shoegaze Band You\u2019ve Never Heard Of: Kinoko Teikoku"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-13721_cb7e47-c1 .kt-block-spacer{height:60px;}.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-13721_cb7e47-c1 .kt-divider{border-top-width:1px;height:1px;border-top-color:var(--global-palette3, #1A202C);width:100%;border-top-style:solid;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-13721_cb7e47-c1\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c\"]{text-align:center;font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<h5 class=\"kt-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_dfc5c8-2c\">Every Sunday, <em>milk crate<\/em> revisits an iconic piece of music history\u2014artist, album, or otherwise\u2014as a part of our weekly crate digging series.<\/h5>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-13721_9dd407-b6 .kt-block-spacer{height:60px;}.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-13721_9dd407-b6 .kt-divider{border-top-width:1px;height:1px;border-top-color:var(--global-palette3, #1A202C);width:100%;border-top-style:solid;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-13721_9dd407-b6\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"410\" src=\"https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/03\/Kinoko-Teikoku-banner-1024x410.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13722\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/03\/Kinoko-Teikoku-banner-1024x410.png 1024w, https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/03\/Kinoko-Teikoku-banner-300x120.png 300w, https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/03\/Kinoko-Teikoku-banner-768x307.png 768w, https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/03\/Kinoko-Teikoku-banner-1536x614.png 1536w, https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/03\/Kinoko-Teikoku-banner.png 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Design by Sophie Parrish<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70\"]{font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading13721_7649a6-70\"><strong>By Christian Jones<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The word shoegaze is annoyingly ubiquitous now. Having catapulted into mainstream cultural consciousness within the last couple of years thanks to the TikTok-ification of subgenres and the growing sophistication of Big Streaming\u2019s music recommendation algorithms, the genre has exploded into all kinds of new contexts. As with any reiteration of a genre, there are two viable motions: a nostalgic return or intrepid innovation. There are the less innovative (for better or worse) nu-nugazers like Whirr, Hotline TNT, Wisp. Then there are the mavericks. Weatherday is an awesome mix of emo, lo fi, and shoegaze. Wednesday, who are indebted to The Swirlies, and MJ Lendermann\u2019s 2022 <em>Boat Songs<\/em> have been described as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/swimintothesound.com\/blog\/2022\/11\/16\/the-countrygaze-manifesto\">countrygaze<\/a>.\u201d Otherwise, shoegaze has become a diffuse reference point for artists of the post-genre internet. It\u2019s impossible not to feel the ghost of shoegaze past in Dean Blunt\u2019s drone or early bar italia\u2019s hypnotic swirl. It seems like there is now a one-in-three chance that any friend of a friend in an alternative band makes \u201cshoegazey\u201d music. By this, there is a one-in-two chance that they actually mean shoegaze or the kind of moody, vaguely depressive sound that would collapse Duster, Cigarettes After Sex, and Slowdive into the same moniker. After all, according to Pitchfork, as of 2023, #shoegaze amassed more than 730 million views on TikTok. In this flood of content are innumerable video edits, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Outfit_of_the_day\">OOTD<\/a>s, and memes that flanderized the genre into an aesthetic signifier, repeated and consumed ad infinitum by Gen-Z\u2019s doomerist, nostalgia-obsessed teens.&nbsp;It&#8217;s seen best in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/shoegazememes\/posts\/962482818580161\/\">wojak charts<\/a> that were extremely popular on Reddit threads and early indie-music Instagram pages around the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This phenomenon isn\u2019t that much unlike the shoegaze-heavy soundtracks of Gregg Araki\u2019s punky New Queer Cinema\u2014that was my introduction to the genre. Still, his filmic deployment of shoegaze wasn\u2019t so exhaustive that it eclipsed the sound itself, but embodied it. If there is any discernible \u2018spirit\u2019 of shoegaze, aside from its stylistic hallmarks\u2014wall of sound, undermixed and ethereal vocals, various effects\u2014it is the solipsism of an angsty, idealistic teenager. Shoegaze\u2019s harsh sounds perfectly encapsulates the torrential emotional changes of adolescence, an abrasive reality that only frays the edges of a dream still intact, that longing for something more, something meaningful and fantastic as yet out of reach. It is the maladaptive daydreaming-prone younger sister of grunge\u2019s rageful nihilism and emo\u2019s depressive wallowing. Araki captures that essence perfectly in his films, from the fugues of 2004\u2019s <em>Mysterious Skin<\/em> to the surreal adventures of 1997\u2019s <em>Nowhere.<\/em> Now, the edits of Araki\u2019s films are a kind of emotional and aesthetic simulacra of that sonic essence. The semantic difference between what constitutes something as shoegazey is no longer dependent on what originally gave it its name\u2014a journalist making fun of musicians for looking at their shoes as they pumped life into the pedals that gave shoegaze its distinct distortion. Outfits, moods, images have all become free game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The downsides of this cultural obsession are also its benefits. Just seven years ago, it seemed inconceivable that icons like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, or Drop Nineteens would ever tour. I\u2019ve now seen Drop Nineteens, Slowdive twice, and if I didn\u2019t want to go deaf, I\u2019d have listened to less full-volume MBV in high school so I could see them, too. Legends aside, all the new variations on shoegaze are abundantly cool\u2014I\u2019m no genre purist. The \u201cZoomergazers\u201d from Jane Remover to quannic\u2019s 2022 <em>kenopsia<\/em>, or Parannoul\u2019s 2021 <em>To See the Next Part of the Dream<\/em>, meld shoegaze, electronic, emo, and modern production gimmicks with an excitingly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/music\/scene-report\/the-emergence-of-hyper-rock\">hyper-rock<\/a> bend. In some ways, these new sub-subgenres from \u201ccountrygaze\u201d to \u201cZoomergaze\u201d suggest that shoegaze as a musical genre is actually becoming more defined, more attuned to nuance, even as it is publicly misattributed. Besides, there wasn\u2019t ever much sonic consistency to corral the acts in each of shoegaze\u2019s three major waves in the first place\u2014they seem only connected by time period and the increasingly open ways the sound has been manipulated. Just as shoegaze had its golden era in the \u201990s\u2014though it technically emerged in the late \u201980s\u2014the 2000s ushered in a new era. The second wave of shoegaze, often referred to as \u201cnugaze,\u201d came roughly around the mid 2000s to 2010s. Subgenres emerged then, too. Alcest and Sunbather had their moments as \u201cblackgaze\u201d bands. The Stargazer Lillies, Ringo Deathstarr, and Melody\u2019s Echo Chamber took early iterations of \u201cpsychgaze\u201d to new highs. Candy Claws infused psychgaze with dream pop, and Beach House would bring the sound increasingly into the mainstream. Sweet Trip\u2019s 2004 <em>velocity : design : comfort <\/em>was a totally unprecedented blend of ambient, electronic, DnB, and shoegaze. Everything after the turn of the millennium might just as well be \u201cpost-genre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But a scene from this period still remains surprisingly undiscussed\u2014Japanese Shoegaze. It was a relatively small subgenre. The earliest bands started releasing around the late \u201990s, iconic albums, like Coaltar of the Deepers\u2019 1998 <em>Submerge<\/em> and Supercar\u2019s 1998 <em>Three Out Change!!<\/em> Throughout the early 2000s, bands like Luminous Orange, Pasteboard, Tokyo Shoegazer, and cryuff in the bedroom continued to evolve the sound. But nothing, classic or modern, compares to the idiosyncratic sound of Kinoko Teikoku.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kinoko Teikoku, which translates to \u201cMushroom Empire,\u201d was formed in 2007, comprising Sato Chiaki on vocals and guitar, A-chan on the guitar and keyboards, Shigeaki Taniguchi on the bass, and Kon Nishimura on drums. The band\u2019s first album, 2012\u2019s <em>Uzu ni Naru<\/em> (<em>\u6e26\u306b\u306a\u308b<\/em>) didn\u2019t make much of a splash, despite the incredible elemental fury of its sound. The title roughly translates to \u201cto become a whirlpool\u201d or \u201cto swirl,\u201d and throughout the album they manipulate distortion and momentum to make the sound feel like roaring white water. There are epic slow-builds, like \u201cWhirlpool,\u201d where shrill, stadium-rock-esque guitar riffs pierce through a swirling wall of noise. Or the 8-minute \u201cTaikutsushinogi\u201d which lurches from loud to Sato\u2019s featherweight vocals, accompanied only by a thin beat and spindly fret noises, before revving back up even louder, as if falling off the edge of a waterfall while screaming. The other 8-minute track, \u201cAshikubi,\u201d is less undulating and more a steadily rising current into total sonic decimation. The peppy tracks \u201cSchool Fiction\u201d and \u201cGirl Meets Number Girl\u201d could easily catapult into anime-soundtrack fame, with catchy choruses and earworm riffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kinoko Teikoku would alchemize the raw components of their style in their 2013 sophomore album, <em>Eureka<\/em>, into something entirely unparalleled by any other shoegaze sound. Sato opens \u201cYodaka\u201d chanting as if casting a spell\u2014really, she is singing about how existence can be excruciating when we must kill to survive. The reverb in the latter half of the song rumbles like tectonic plates opening onto a reservoir of oil, shimmering mysteriously in iridescent blackness. On \u201cHarutoshura\u201d Sato\u2019s syncopated lyricism has a gusto against jagged guitar riffs that sound like alarms. \u201cKokudouslope\u201d is a catchy thrasher full of angst and freedom with its octangular chord progression and cathartic shouting. It was the anthem of my teenage years and still feels like bodies in a mosh pit, jumping and slamming against you in complete reckless abandon. \u201cEureka\u201d is one of their best and most original songs, its walls of anarchic disorientation and syncopated industrial noise like a chaotic breach at the containment facility for some supernatural beast. Sato plays on her spellbinding whisper in the beginning, before transitioning into a sustained shout, as filled with longing as Hayley Williams in \u201cAll I Wanted.\u201d The near 9-minute \u201cMusician\u201d is the band\u2019s greatest opus, a true monument in the annals of shoegaze history. The last 2 minutes have a rapturous beauty\u2014guitar riffs wailing gloriously, comets raining from the sky, the land and sea trembling. It\u2019s a kind of sublime bliss that comes only on the verge of annihilation. Throughout <em>Eureka<\/em>, all the elements of Kinoko Teikoku\u2019s sound are magnified: the slow-builds become seismic, the fragility of Sato\u2019s voice that much more anguished, the tone as enigmatically piercing as the pastel rainbow eye nearly scrawled out by black scribbles on its cover. You don\u2019t have to speak Japanese to understand the feelings of existential dread and euphoria that Sato <a href=\"https:\/\/aimailyrics.com\/post\/154262383201\/musician-kinoko-teikoku-tl\">sings<\/a>; they are transmitted by melodic osmosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Released only months after <em>Eureka<\/em>, the <em>Long Goodbye<\/em> EP signaled a turning point for the band. By 2014, as they rose in popularity, they adopted a straightforward J-rock sound, losing almost completely any traces of shoegaze. On the highlight \u201cFlower Girl,\u201d they go out guns blazing\u2014the gentle, hypnotic repetition of\u00a0 \u201cFlower Girl\u201d sliding into a gargantuan wall of noise. Its title seems, in retrospect, to signal farewell to their beloved genre. Then, in 2018 they disbanded. Bassist Taniguchi took on a role at his family\u2019s Buddhist temple, and rather than find a new member, they opted to explore their own paths. You can hear elements of the sound they pioneered in some shoegaze acts that would emerge later throughout the 2010s like Yugari\u2019s 2016 EP <em>Nightlife<\/em>. But for the most part, their brilliance was self-contained and entirely unreplicable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only Kinoko Teikoku\u2019s earliest three projects are truly shoegaze. They stand as relics of a short-lived period when the band created some of the most prodigious music of the genre, regardless of era or style. If in writing this I send them to their cultural death-in-revival, then let this also be a plea. Kinoko Teikoku: please get back together and tour the U.S. and play the two greatest Japanese shoegaze albums of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only Kinoko Teikoku\u2019s earliest three projects are truly shoegaze. They stand as relics of a short-lived period when the band created some of the most prodigious music of the genre, regardless of era or style. If in writing this I send them to their cultural death-in-revival, then let this also be a plea. Kinoko Teikoku: please get back together and tour the U.S. and play the two greatest Japanese shoegaze albums of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":13723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Best Japanese Shoegaze Band You\u2019ve Never Heard Of: Kinoko Teikoku - wecb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/milkcrate\/the-best-japanese-shoegaze-band-youve-never-heard-of-kinoko-teikoku\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Best Japanese Shoegaze Band You\u2019ve Never Heard Of: Kinoko Teikoku - wecb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Only Kinoko Teikoku\u2019s earliest three projects are truly shoegaze. They stand as relics of a short-lived period when the band created some of the most prodigious music of the genre, regardless of era or style. If in writing this I send them to their cultural death-in-revival, then let this also be a plea. 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