With two outstanding albums under their belt since their inception in 2006, Tokyo based trio Mouse On The Keys released earlier this year their magnificent third album, The Flowers Of Romance. The compositions of Akira Kawasaki (drum, keyboards), Atsushi Kiyota (piano, keyboards) and Daisuke Niitome (piano, keyboards), who make up the trio, exhibit far-flung influences from Burt Bacharach to Claude Debussy, from Johann Sebastian Bach to Beastie Boys, from Napalm Death to Steve Reich. Mouse On The Keys also cited western philosophers like Ferdinand de Saussure, Sigmund Freud or Karl Marx as important influences on the album.

“When I joined Mouse On The Keys”, said Kawasaki, “I envisioned a concept that mixes diverse elements of contemporary music, such as dynamic hardcore drumming and modern French harmony with the feeling of a Detroit techno follower”.

Unlike previous efforts written together, The Flowers Of Romance saw each member writing songs themselves, before teaming up with collaborative guests, including violin player Atsuko Hatano, trumpetist Daisuke Sasaki and guitarist Masahiro Tobita, amongst many other musicians.
The press release describes the album as “an exhilarating utopian masterpiece of venturesome music made for ears with a deep sense of intense and playful radicalness, precision, fidelity and frankness.”

The Flowers of Romance is out now worldwide via Mule Musiq. To get you enticed for this release, here’s the video for the tremendous album track ‘leviathan’.