I’ve been intermittently tracking Tokyo’s KILDREN for a little while now, both because I like their music and because I’ve found their ongoing identity evolution interesting to watch. To recap, their first singles in Spring 2024 placed them firmly on the pop side of the J-gaze spectrum, but a year later they scrubbed those songs from most streaming services in favour of a darker, heavier sound which they’ve explored over a few singles through this year. Through most of this year, their socials bios have proudly declared them to be “grungegaze”, though they very recently have edited it again to be “sushi gaze”. Which sounds pretty tasty.

The timing is surely related to a number of band activities that are coming out in the next while, which they announced at the end of last month. I expected the “re-release of three past singles” meant the return of “Translucent”, “Sundance”, and “Icymoon” to paid streaming services, but instead they meant that the three 2025 songs – “Nocturnal”, “Phantom Swayed”, and “Fluid” – which had gone offline at the end of November due to changing digital distributors, were back. For the earliest songs, you still only have Bandcamp.

The second point, scheduled for today, was the release of the appropriately-timed and -named new single “December”, which they’ve described as “A turning point into our heavier shoegaze sound” though specifically what is turning to what is unclear, as it’s very much in line stylistically with their previous 2025 releases. There’s no video – even finding a non-paid stream was harder than expected, as the song isn’t on their Bandcamp – but there are some visuals in an Instagram post previewing the song’s release, so maybe a fully-edited clip is still coming?

Still to come is Memory Tape, an EP of unreleased material coming December 25, and recording of their debut full-length commences in 2026.