Free-spirited jazz improvisation and underground LA beats sensibility combine on Lionmilk Quartet’s forthcoming live debut album, O.T.S.
Classically trained, raised on beats and liberated by jazz, Moki Kawaguchi aka Lionmilk knows all about bringing worlds together.
A pianist, producer, composer, vocalist and fixture on the LA scene, the 27-year-old has released solo albums on Paxico & Leaving Records, collaborated with MNDSGN, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Alpha Pup band Breathing Effect, honing a sound that skips effortlessly between dreamy pop, Brazilian Bossa and modern soul influences.
As much about giving space to others as taking it for himself, on this live debut as Lionmilk Quartet, he pulls his expansive jazz chops to the fore, showcasing some of the city’s finest players in the process: Diego Gaeta (keyboards), Caleb Buchanan (bass) and Aloe Blacc and Kiefer collaborator Will Logan (drums).
I brought this tune to the band without any kind of arrangement, direction or expectation. We went over the melody once during rehearsal, and left the rest for the performance. I fully trusted in us and I was surprised and proud of the result!, explains Lionmilk about the new single “Take A Breath”.
Recorded live in June 2019 and named after his monthly showcase at BackBeat LA, O.T.S. swells with organic life, as tracks like ‘Take A Breath’ dissolve low-slung grooves into a sea of effervescent keys. One of five tracks simply called ‘Quartet Vibration’, ‘Quartet Vibration II’ goes deep into fusion territory, all shuffling drums and funk riffs. On ‘Penelope’, breakneck keyboard runs cascade over Logan and Buchanan’s rippling percussive interplay, before ‘Moki’s Dark Side’ submerges the whole set in a soup of guttural drones and processed electronics.
Channeling the original spirit of LA’s Low End Theory – whose founder Daddy Kev mastered this record – the O.T.S. sessions also represent a vital expression of Kawaguchi’s belief in the power of inclusivity, bringing the instrumental and production techniques of beatmakers, jazz, funk, gospel, ambient and rock musicians together with the spirit of collaboration and experimentation, carving out a new post-beats era.
Released on Preference Records, itself run by six individuals – including drummer Mekala Session (Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra), producer Jesse Justice and Stones Throw jazz prodigy Jamael Dean – with its own collective identity for championing the city’s new sounds, Lionmilk Quartet’s O.T.S. is a joyful, open-ended expression of musical unity.