Kikagaku Moyo: Masana Temples (Guruguru Brain/Southbound)

Self-described “psychedelic” rock from Japan recorded in Lisbon by a jazz musician (Bruno Pernadas) and which opens with a sitar piece? Then gets into a bit of funk?

And why not, we say.

Umm, here's why not.

This five-piece from Tokyo on their fourth album hardly push the envelope in terms of serious wig-out or even into new areas but rather meld together some very familiar tropes from ambient prog, dream pop, Japanese folk-pop, insubstantial references to the idea of motorik beats and so on.

This is mostly more easy and pleasant than expansively psychedelic and only the searing and tension of Gatherings towards the end offers something more substantial (although in its dynamics it owes more than a nod to the old Court of the Crimson King, in a less punishing way).

Pass on this folkadelica.