IROIRO

It only took a few gigs for IROIRO to establish themselves as Seattle's most exciting rock group. This may surprise fans of IQU, whose Michiko Swiggs and Kento Oiwa form IROIRO's creative core. Whereas IQU combined samples and live instrumentation to put playful spins on electronic music, IROIRO produce extended, vocal-free jams that blossom into powerful psychedelic rock. You can hear the band's splendid evolution on their self-titled debut LP.

In the aftermath of early-'20s IQU reunion gigs and the disbanding of synthesist Swiggs and drummer Justin Schwartz's electronic unit Zazaz, they asked Oiwa to join them in a new project. Kento—who'd been involved in solo improv project Malaise—agreed. Along with newly added bassist James Drage, they assembled for jam sessions at which the trio combined Zazaz's “man-machine methods” and Malaise's spontaneous noise excursions. The resulting music will convince you that rock still has ingenuity to burn.

“We would spend hours finding grooves and making crazy noises,” Swiggs recalled. “We would sit around for hours and make sounds that we weren’t hearing from other music.” IROIRO also find inspiration in Balinese gamelan. “There is no beginning, there is no end,” Swiggs explains. “It is a part of nature and nature informs it.” This predilection for the infinite combined with a fondness for free-flowing creation fueled IROIRO's recordings. IROIRO's songs gain intensity as they progress, becoming more beautiful as they accrue chaos.