Jahtari
For their self-titled EP, Shigeru Ishihara (AKA DJ Scotch Egg) and Kiki Hitomi have ramped up the musical mania found on their Shinsekai LP, delivering a five-track 12” which veritably throbs with dubbed-up electro, Afro-funk and 8-bit disco (e)motion. Cyberpunk to the max, the duo blitter and batter their infectious grooves with a swinging sensibility that holds Hitomi’s vocals in a freefall melange of genre-bending bloops and blips that uncoil around thunderous basslines and subtly applied drum machine workouts.
Labelmate
Roger Robinson drops by to voice a sharply-observed slice of heavily effected dub poetry on “Ceremony Of Vision”, Hitomi’s
vocalisations providing the melody to a clattery marimba(ish) beat and sputtering electronic jungle — of the environmental rather than breakbeat-heavy variety — swirls. “You are just another beast, and you are welcome”, Robinson declaims from on high amid the enveloping electronic rainforest sounds, reminding all to treat the environment with respect. His is a stentorian yet kindly voice of authority, declaring that the listener should “leave all their worries behind” as he advocates for existing in a state of mind closer to nature.
WaqWaq Kingdom join the likes of
The Knife (and
Fever Ray as well for that matter) before them in
revisiting and revising the perfect electro-pop moment while suitably stretching its parameters in ever-more unfamiliar ways too, flitting restlessly from style to style without in any way resting anywhere long enough to be called mere copyists. Theirs is a quintessentially millennial (in outlook rather than age group) sound here, drawing on influences from all over, mashing them up and letting the results speak in if not a wholly new way, then one which touches across generations and musical technologies.
-Linus Tossio-
For their self-titled EP, Shigeru Ishihara (AKA DJ Scotch Egg) and Kiki Hitomi have ramped up the musical mania found on their Shinsekai LP, delivering a five-track 12” which veritably throbs with dubbed-up electro, Afro-funk and 8-bit disco (e)motion. Cyberpunk to the max, the duo blitter and batter their infectious grooves with a swinging sensibility that holds Hitomi’s vocals in a freefall melange of genre-bending bloops and blips that uncoil around thunderous basslines and subtly applied drum machine workouts.
