This August Qujaku finally returned to Europe, after being away from the continent for several years.: following their 2018 tour, they released one more EP in 2019 (the excellent In Neutral) and then went on a break-of-sorts. It wasn’t an announced hiatus, more like a period of inactivity, when they were posting this and that, some of the members were dealing with their own project, they just did not release anything for a long time and wasn’t really playing live either. This finally changed in autumn 2024, when they released a new 12″, Ruiteggaakupanshi (which is officially a single, but with three tracks and a 20+ minutes playing time, it could pass as an EP as well) and did a couple of UK gigs, then this summer they were back at last for a proper UK / EU tour.

Besides dates in the UK, France, Germany, Slovakia, Belgium and Switzerland, they also stopped in Budapest for a gig, where they already played twice in the past (first under their old name, The Piqnic in 2015, then as Qujaku in 2018), where this time they played at one of the city’s best known venues, A38. It is a massive old ship with a neat concert hall inside, but during summer they also hold shows at the roof terrace and that’s where this one took place.

I was extremely happy to see them return to touring and recording, because even when I saw them for the first time back in 2015, I felt that they have the potential to become the next Mono or Boris if they put enough effort into building up their career internationally. That’s why the inactivity got me kind of worried, but they are back and fortunately, they as good as ever. Moving as a Giant, a noise rock / post-rock band from Slovenia opened the night but unfortunately I missed them due to work, but was just in time to join the approx. hundred people that turned up to see for Qujaku, For most, it was the first time seeing them, but there were several people that saw them the second or third time and were more familiar with the band in general, and they were already cheering when the band started off with Gyakushi, one of their signature tracks, a slow burner that starts out with monotonous, tribal drumming and builds from there, gradually turning into a massive, noisy and trippy piece. But this was always one of the strong parts of Qujaku. To write 10-20 minute long, very carefully built and crafted ever-changing hypnotic pieces. That are very difficult to categorize thanks to their special blend of sound, that is built from elements borrowed from various genres. Their early releases were more shoegaze oriented and while they left behind that sound for the most part, they kept the structure of how shoegaze songs are built and mixed it up with elements of psychedelic rock, krautrock, noise rock and more. They also played one of the best examples of this, Gloria, another 10+ minute monster, that has a distinctive psych rock guitar part near the end, but other than that is more of a slowly building trippy, krautrock / noise rock masterpiece.

One of the highlights of the show was the title track of the Ruiteggaakupanshi EP, in which their singer, Shuya also included bits of pure noise and effect-heavy screams, adding yet another layer to the Qujaku sound. The audience went wild and after they finished the main set, even though the venue’s strict sound curfew was fast approaching, they demanded an encore. They don’t really have songs that were short enough for the time left, so they quickly discussed how to shorten one of their tunes and the crowd only let them go after they played that. It was really great to see the band again, to see that their live shows are as good as ever, while their music still keeps on evolving. And also, I hope that now, that their break is over, they will keep on touring and putting out new releases, getting the praise and wider popularity they deserve. Check below for some photos and a video of not-that-great sound quality.