Purveyors of psychedelic “feeling good” music from across Asia, Guruguru Brain has had a trajectory as circuitous as the sprawling, transcendent jams it has released in its near decade of operation. Run by Tomo Katsurada and Go Kurosawa, two members of the now disbanded Kikagaku Moyo, the label began in the early 2010s as a psychedelic rock night in Tokyo. After releasing a compilation that highlighted their contemporaries in the Japanese scene, their sights quickly turned toward the rest of Asia. From Taiwan to Thailand, Pakistan to Indonesia, Korea to Japan, the label has grown into a pan-Asian community of bands united less by genre or cultural background than by a shared attitude toward pushing the boundaries of psychedelia. Now based in Amsterdam, the duo have turned their focus to moving the label forward, expanding their international musical community.

Kikagaku Moyo “Can You Imagine Nothing”
From Various Guruguru Brain Wash (2014)

The compilation that started it all, Guruguru Brain Wash is a piece of history: 21 tracks that capture the energy of Japan’s early 2010s psych rock scene. Kikagaku Moyo’s contribution is no less momentous; “Can You Imagine Nothing” also appeared as the opening track on their 2013 self titled debut EP. It’s incredibly lo-fi, two strummed guitar chords that yield space for sitar improvisations, flighty flutes and spoken word soliloquising. You can already hear their international ethos – half the lyrics are in English and half in Spanish – as well as their earthy spirituality. Fittingly, the band wrote the song “over a night spent jamming on a suspended footbridge in remote mountains”.

Khana Bierbood “Bad Trip”
From Strangers From The Far East (2019)

Meaning Strange Brew in Thai, Khana Bierbood take fuzz to another level. Produced by Guruguru’s Go Kurosawa, Strangers from The Far East​ is the label’s foray into Thailand’s psychedelic rock scene. “Bad Trip” is the heaviest track on the record, a straightforward lo-fi garage belter driven by Gob Yutthana’s crackling vocals and seafoam riffing; halfway through, sludgy guitars come in like a tidal wave. Worthy inheritors of Thailand’s 1960s and 70s wave of surf rock (or wong shadow) music, the band also incorporate tonal elements of mor lam and other traditional Thai forms on other tracks like “Bangsaen Lady” and “Jeanmaryn”.

Ramayana Soul “Aluminium Foil”
From Sabdatanmantra (2016)

It would be difficult to capture the sound of Jakarta based Ramayana Soul with just one track, but the opener for Sabdatanmantra might do the trick. “Aluminum Foil” has a lot of what makes the band so beloved: enigmatic harmonies, vocals that toggle between Indonesian melodies and punk shouting pushed to overdrive, and even a little bit of organ trickery straight from Madchester. Other tracks like “Dawai Batu Gadjah” display their textural chops with sitar and tabla, but they truly accomplish their goal of the “synthesis of new global sounds” on “Aluminum Foil”.

Tengger “Donggrami”
From Segye (2017)

The Seoul based trio Tengger uses analogue synth, Indian harmonium, voice and various toys to create their own psychedelic worlds on Segye (meaning World). A family band consisting of itta, Marqido and their son RAAI, their music evokes the spirituality of travel; here, though, they’re also influenced by the 2016 candlelight demonstrations that raged on outside their recording studio. “Donggrami” (meaning circle) opens the record with pulsating electronics and harmonium, interspersed with itta’s diaphanous croon. A testament to Guruguru Brain’s ever-expanding notions of psychedelia, “동그라미 Donggrami” and the rest of the tracks on Segye straddle the spiritual and worldly with sound.

NAWKSH featuring Smax “Exile & A Mirror”
From Mythic Tales Of Tomorrow II (2016)

You might guess that Karachi, Pakistan’s NAWKSH is also a game developer by the fantastic sound world he creates on Mythic Tales Of Tomorrow II; according to him, the record is set somewhere in the future in a place called CERATYL. “Exile & A Mirror” is the record’s 12 minute finale, a potpourri of electronic flourishes, impressionistic guitar strumming, vocals that dissipate into noise, and chiptunes that melt into ambient drones. A collaboration with fellow Karachi based musician Smax, the track is a portal into the city’s greater experimental electronic music scene and its bursting creativity.

Scattered Purgatory “Thee Ancestral Glistening Tai​-​Bai”
From Lost Ethnography Of The Miscanthus Ocean (2019)

After debuting their label with the Guruguru Brain Wash compilation, Kurosawa and Katsurada took a bit of a left turn in their second release. Taiwan’s Scattered Purgatory and their plodding metallic drones were a far cry sonically from the jangly psych of the likes of Sundays & Cybele. But this release signalled the label’s international, pan-Asian modus operandi, as well as cementing the label firmly within Taiwan’s circle of oddballs like Prairie WWWW and Mong Tong. Rather than sound, it’s the band’s twin references to spiritual practices and local landscapes that connects this release to Guruguru Brain Wash, though the expansive drones of “太白金星/Thee ancestral glistening Tai-Bai” foreshadowed the diversity of sounds that Guruguru would be interested in.

Dhidala “Black Shrine”
From Sensoria (2022)

Along with the likes of Sundays & Cybele, Minami Deustch and of course Kikagaku Moyo themselves, Dhidalah have been a label staplesince the very beginning in Guruguru Brain Wash; fittingly, their name is a reference to folk religion, the Giant Gods who are “known as the creators of mountains, lakes and islands”. A 20 minute epic, “Black Shrine” closes out the third record that the Japanese space rockers have released on Guruguru Brain. “Black Shrine” shows the band in full form, from their steady rhythmic crescendos to their spacy, textural interludes to their blistering breakdowns.

Budak Bawah Blok “Teksi Dreba”
From Various Sounds Of Lecak Vol 1 (2022)

A collaboration between Guruguru Brain and Singapore’s Kribo Records, Sounds Of Lecak Vol 1 is a showcase of Singapore’s tight-knit funk and soul scene. Run by Haqim Isa, aka Maggot (after Funkadelic), Kribo Records traffics in slick Southeast Asian funk, drawing the archipelagic connections between Luk Thung, Afrobeat, funk, disco and pop. The label’s slick, pop tendencies are at the forefront of “Teksi Dreba” by Budak Bawah Blok; with vocals by barber-cum-synthpop singer Akid Amir and an infectious bassline from Maggot, the track showcases the scene at its catchiest.