FINALLY, A BAND THAT BLENDS CLASSIC JAPANESE BALLADRY, SURF ROCK AND PSYCHEDELIA
By Gregory Adams
WHEN MONTREAL’S TEKE::TEKE first formed to cover the music of Japanese surf guitar icon Takeshi Terauchi, bandleader Sei Nakauchi Pelletier aimed to capture the explosive, tube-carving essence of his hero’s playing, rather than recreate his gear haul. Nevertheless, when Pelletier recently found an old Mosrite online — the late Terry’s brand of choice — he knew he had to grab it. Trouble is, his new toy hardly gets as much play as the worn-in Univox Hi-Flier he’s been hauling around since Teke::Teke’s early days.
“I always go back to the Hi-Flier. I feel like it’s just the sound of Teke::Teke,” Pelletier says, citing the vintage offset’s high-set whammy bar and grittier presence as reasons for making it his go-to. “It’s almost too slick, the Mosrite — too hi-fi, somehow. I feel like I have to be delicate.”
On Hagata, Teke::Teke’s second album of originals, the septet crash surf-informed phosphorescence through elements of doom-laden psych-rock and the honeyed bass bump of early Seventies Serge Gainsbourg. Throughout, Pelletier and co-guitarist Hidetaka Yoneyama ride a rip-tide of rotating wahs, ring mods and antique overdrives. Live, Yoneyama is also prone to producing teal-textured waves of guitar feedback with the use of portable fans and needle nose pliers. While historically the more ambient player, raw power Hagata highlight “Hoppe” has Yoneyama going for broke with feverishly abstract, off-meter scale-crawling.
“It used to be more that Hidetaka would do more of the rhythm guitar, and I would do most of the leads,” Pelletier says of the dynamic, “but by the end of ‘Hop
