Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – UZU Will Open Up Your Eyes and Ears

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s musical output is an all-encompassing, in-your-face, many disciplined and many platformed sonic mélange, touching on everything from international crystal pop, to spaced out rock, noise, experimental electronics, to punk rock, Metal, Prog, and Chinese operatic influences. Dubbing themselves an Asian, Indigenous, and diasporic art collective, the Montreal-Toronto project revolves around the dual center backs of Ruby Atwood (vocals, keys, percussion, art) and Alaska B (drums, electronic drums, keys, electronics, programming, vocals, art), the band rounded out by an equal number of like-minded musicians and artists who look bring this larger-than-life project to you and me through home-made musical gear, makeup and costumes, giant stage props, designs and sets, as well as visuals, video and animation. Ultimately though at the heart of what Yamantaka // Sonic Titan create is a drawing on the members’ unique cultural backgrounds and upbringings, and an exploration, questioning, reinterpretation, and presentation of their Asian-Canadian and First Nations heritages through art and sound.

Long loved ‘ici’ by an adoring fanbase who first discovered them six-odd years ago, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan have been spreading their mantra globally since the release of their critically acclaimed self-titled debut in 2012. Cut to now and the apparition of their new album UZU. What we hear are the first seeds of a rock-solid unit, with non-core members contributing to the creation of the new material, who somehow manage to make sense of myriad musical and artistic genres, blending and bending these into what can truly be called the Yamantaka // Sonic Titan sound.