Ako, Bialystocks, go!go!vanillas, and Kroi join The Great Escape 2025 for Japanese artist showcases

Ako, Bialystocks, go!go!vanillas, and Kroi — four acts from Tokyo-based label IRORI Records, an imprint of PONY CANYON — have been confirmed to perform at The Great Escape Festival 2025 in Brighton.

All four artists will appear twice during the festival: first at the official PONY CANYON showcase, part of the festival’s core programme, and again at the IRORI Records event within The Alternative Escape, a parallel citywide series that gives independent labels and promoters space to present artists on their own terms. Both showcases will mark each artist’s UK live debut.

The PONY CANYON showcase takes place on Thursday, May 15th at the Queens Hotel, running from 12:15pm to 3:15pm. The IRORI Records showcase follows on Friday, May 16th at Casablanca Club, from 6pm to 10pm. Entry to the IRORI Records show is free and open to all (18+), regardless of festival wristband.

Ako

Emerging from Tokyo’s independent scene in 2020, Ako is a singer-songwriter who filters influences from music, film, manga, and literature through her creative collective, londog. Early EPs ‘Potential MISTY’ and ‘ANTI BLUE’ established her minimalist, introspective sound, leading to a major debut under IRORI Records in 2024 with the single ‘Planet’. Her first album ‘GENE’ expanded her approach, drawing on references from Steve Lacy, Nujabes, and early 2000s house and rock. Ako’s work treats creativity less as escapism and more as an act of preservation, a way of connecting personal memory with a shifting cultural landscape.

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Bialystocks

Formed in 2019 for a live musical performance in the film Haruneko, the Tokyo duo — vocalist and filmmaker Sora Hokimoto, and pianist-composer Go Kikuchi — build songs that drift between folk realism and daydream. Their releases, from ‘Quicksand’ to ‘Songs for the Cryptids’, lean into atmosphere without forcing conclusions, often treating silence like a second instrument. Kikuchi’s jazz-rooted, freehand compositions and Hokimoto’s soulful but unhurried delivery give their music a sense of both breadth and intimacy. They sound less like a band chasing moments than one letting them pass.

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go!go!vanillas

Formed in Tokyo in 2013, go!go!vanillas have built a style that pulls equally from garage rock, R&B, ska, and folk, balancing high-energy songwriting with a loose, roots-driven feel. Fronted by Tatsuya Maki, the quartet have steadily expanded their audience through a focus on live performance, culminating in major solo shows at venues like Makuhari Messe and Nippon Budokan. After moving to IRORI Records in 2024, they recorded in London for the first time, capturing a sharper, more open sound on ‘Lab.’ — a record that favours human warmth over polished artifice.

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Kroi

Kroi’s 2024 moved fast: a sold-out Budokan show, a US debut at SXSW, the release of Unspoiled, and a tie-in with one of the final anime projects from the legendary Akira Toriyama. But the Tokyo five-piece are thinking longer-term. Built around restless curiosity and a dry sense of humour, Kroi have scaled up without chasing viral moments, treating live shows, studio work, tie-ins and collaborations as parts of the same slow, deliberate climb. Their music, a shifting mix of funk, R&B, rock and hip-hop, is still driven by pure instinct, but now tempered by a clearer sense of direction.

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PONY CANYON Presents: The Great Escape 2025 Showcase

Date: Thursday, May 15th 2025
Time: 12:15–15:15
Venue: Queens Hotel, 1–3 Kings Road, Brighton BN1 1NS
Entry: Festival wristband required

IRORI Records Presents: The Alternative Escape 2025

Date: Friday, May 16th 2025
Time: 18:00–22:00
Venue: Casablanca, 5 Middle Street, Brighton BN1 1AL
Entry: Free (18+)

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