Two drummers, one trombone and a fuckload of shit.

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“An excellent record” - Gideon Coe, BBC 6 Music

 “Fantastic stuff” - Stuart Maconie BBC 6 Music

 “An exhilarating blast of wonk and skronk. Rhythmic and immediate, they hit the sweet spot between engaging and unpredictable.” - Echoes & Dust

“Darn fine!” - The Shend

“A mushrooming mothership of psyched surf brain dissolves, hypno-grooving mesmerics and hot wiring fringe frazzling freak storms, features solar fried trombones, I kid you not, file under Meek-esque dragster psych kosmick pill trip.” – Losing Today 

“I've got to be honest, at first I didn't get it. On the second time, I absolutely loved it.” - BBC Introducing

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Declared by Bandcamp's chief writer Joe Muggs as his new favourite band, based on a single live rehearsal recording, Kendo Nagasaki take trace elements of krautrock, free jazz and tribal minimalism and blast them through a Marshall stack turned up to 11.

 

The live experience is everything: Always live, no studio trickery, just in the-moment, as-it-happens slabs of Grade A skronk. If the Butthole Surfers had a brass section...

 

The Mask Off! Mask Off! EP released 01/10/2018, served as Kendo Nagasaki’s mission statement. Recorded live at Muthers Studio, Birmingham. Single take. No overdubs. No less than you deserve.

 

This was closely followed by inclusion on the Polytechnic Youth label’s vinyl comp Popcorn Lung LP and then a split 7” with Frauds on the Die Das Der label.

 

2019 saw Kendo Nagasaki getting into the ring with Bruxa Maria, Irma Vep, MoE, The Unit Ama, Rainbow Grave, Frauds, Table Scraps and plenty more – each time dealing a knockout blow.

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A single, Capslock Commando, was released in 2020. The pandemic put paid to live events for a while, but Kendo kept busy and released a new track, Three Word Platitude on the Die Das Der compilation, Without Venues We're Nothing, helping to raise money for live venue staff who were out of work.

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Once gigs were back on the agenda, Kendo secured a sweet support slot with the mighty Deerhoof. The resulting show was recorded and turned out well enough to release as an album, Live 01.09.22.

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Now Kendo are back in full force, with the debut studio album Hurt, Decide, Conspire on Hidden Mantra Records. Still recorded live, it captures the intensity and experimentalism of Kendo in 11 blistering new tracks. The album, followed by the single Drumbeat Micro Onions caught the attention of BBC 6 Music and the band broadcast a live session on 18 September 2023 for Marc Riley & Gideon Coe and curated an hour long Freak Zone Playlist for BBC 6 Music in January 2024.

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The single Thudding Dollar Dictation was released in March 2024, and a compilation of remastered tracks previously only available as digital singles, splits and comp tracks, Ducks Album Questions, was released in September.

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Personnel:

Mr Darleydale - Trombone

Mr Measham - Drums

Mr Droitwich - Drums

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Grapple with Kendo Nagasaki here.