Prog Rock / Psych-Rock

Atsuko Chiba is back from slumber with “Seeds”

by Stephan Boissonneault

I remember the first time I threw on Atsuko Chiba’s 2019 album, Trace. My partner stepped into the room and asked me why I was listening to “vampire music.” Vampire music … perhaps so … if a bunch of prog rock/synth enthusiasts in Transylvania were creating mind-expanding sounds up in a neon-lit high bell tower. The real band, however—who take their name from a character in the dream detective anime, Paprika—are five guys from Montreal who happen to love strange time signatures, Delphic lyrics, drone, and basically anything and everything outside the realm of ‘simple music.’ They even made a crazy prog-rock hip-hop chameleon called “Quick Infant Guilt,” which sounds like MF Doom fronted by King Crimson.

But Atsuko Chiba has a knack for making its maelstrom of prog, drone, and psych sound digestible and easy to latch onto, with their latest offering “Seeds,” being a testament to that statement.

“Seeds,” clocking in at 7 minutes and 45 seconds, is an immersive journey that puts the listener into an out-of-body trance. Trilling guitars, harmony after vocal harmony, sprawling synths, tasty/grooving bass, sprinkles of percussion, and smashing crash cymbals, and a gorgeous string arrangement by Montreal quartet, Quatuor Esca, “Seeds,” nestles deep into its own sonic universe and leaves a burning and enigmatic uncertainty. You’d go mad trying to decipher its meaning, but a lovely music video, directed by Rodrigo Sergio and starring Jade Maya does just that. Maya reacts, dancing and contorting to the music, changing her movement tones from a quaint forest environment to a brutalist city underpass.

Enjoy the “Seeds” video here before Atsuko Chiba’s third full-length, Water, It Feels Like Its Growing drops in January via Mothland.

Latest 360 Content

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Popea: being marketwise

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Popea: being marketwise

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

Common Holly – Anything glass

Common Holly – Anything glass

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist, 3 in 1

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist, 3 in 1

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

FIJM | Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique

FIJM | Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique

Fantastic Negrito – Son of A Broken Man

Fantastic Negrito – Son of A Broken Man

Cumbia, Chaos, and Resistance: Empanadas Illegales Bring the Heat to Montreal Jazz Fest

Cumbia, Chaos, and Resistance: Empanadas Illegales Bring the Heat to Montreal Jazz Fest

Turnstile – Never Enough

Turnstile – Never Enough

FIJM | Meggie Lennon and The Desire Days Story

FIJM | Meggie Lennon and The Desire Days Story

FIJM | Dianne Reeves and Romero Lubambo: An Intimate Duo of Virtuosos

FIJM | Dianne Reeves and Romero Lubambo: An Intimate Duo of Virtuosos

FIJM | Brandon Woody’s Upendo: Baltimore Represents !

FIJM | Brandon Woody’s Upendo: Baltimore Represents !

FIJM | Stella Cole: From Tik Tok to The Biggest Jazz Stages

FIJM | Stella Cole: From Tik Tok to The Biggest Jazz Stages

ALICE on Her X

ALICE on Her X

FIJM  | Samara Joy: Pushing Classic Vocal Jazz Repertoire to its Limits

FIJM | Samara Joy: Pushing Classic Vocal Jazz Repertoire to its Limits

FIJM | Nas symphonic and Nas not symphonic

FIJM | Nas symphonic and Nas not symphonic

Suoni | The Jellicle KIKI Ball #2 – Feline Grace is Served

Suoni | The Jellicle KIKI Ball #2 – Feline Grace is Served

Suoni | The Dark, Wicked, Warm and Absurd on the Same Dish

Suoni | The Dark, Wicked, Warm and Absurd on the Same Dish

Subscribe to our newsletter