DJ SCOTCH EGG
WaqWaq Kingdom - Mind Onsen
While vividly coloured with the heady ecstasy and dizzying day-glo sonics that we have come to expect from WaqWaq Kingdom, brand new EP Mind Onsen also marks a compelling diversion from their usual velocity. Partly influenced by producer Shigeru Ishihara’s newfound love of minimalism (he references Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, Philip Glass, and E2-E4), there is a beguiling and hypnotic sense of the transcendental and meditative laced through the record, albeit threaded into the breakneck rhythms and hi-octane energy in which Ishihara and Hitomi excel.
Laced with Tanzanian Singeli-inspired rave thump, speedracer synth, and gamelan bells, an evolving WaqWaq Kingdom’s palette also appears. Tracks unravel into Shinto chimes and chanting voice before spinning away, within moments, to reclaim their joyous SNES and gabba delirium. Ishihara tells us that Mind Onsen is also influenced by traditional Japanese minyo and the koplo dangdut dance music of Indonesia. Later tracks lean further into the mystic: menu-select screens to the blistering bossfights of earlier moments. Hitomi’s voice is treated, reverberous, and recharging, while Ishihara’s production chatters and undulates with sonorous Reichian repetition.
“Mind Onsen is not about an escape from reality, but rather a way to rest your brain and get the energy you need for tomorrow,” vocalist Kiki Hitomi tells us. “It’s a positive message.” The concept is drawn from the traditional Japanese onsen, natural hot springs used for bathing and relaxation. In response to the social and political issues of the current era, Hitomi speaks of the necessity to find peace and calm even in stressful moments. “I visualise myself in the hot spring where I can see the beautiful Japanese mountains and hear the river and natural spring hot water is running,” she writes. “It is a sort of mindfulness meditation that makes me feel happiness and appreciate my life.”
Takkak Takkak
A playfully eccentric, pulsating mass of precarious polyrhythms and DIY drones, Takkak Takkak is a brand new project from prolific Berlin-based Japanese producer Shigeru Ishihara (aka Scotch Rolex) and Vilnius-based Indonesian composer and instrument builder Mo’ong Santoso Pribadi, best known as one half of Raja Kirik. The duo found common ground with their borderless enthusiasm for rhythm - hence their tongue-in-cheek, onomatopoeic moniker - and tasked themselves with hacking contemporary and traditional musics, fusing eardrum-piercing club sounds with wiry Asian traditional patterns and howling vocals. And although there are discernible fingerprints from across the musical map, Ishihara and Pribadi debut a sound that's doggedly unconventional.
Scotch Rolex, Shackleton & Omutaba - The Three Hands of Doom
**Boomkat Review **
Heavy, heavy, heavyyyyy rhythmic madness from Shackleton, Scotch Rolex and Omutaba, invoking new rhythmic traditions on an enchanted debut album for Nyege Nyege Tapes, twisting galvanic rhythms from HHY & The Kampala Unit's Omutaba into sozzled, psychedelic peregrinations. Dubby, kinetic and viciously mind-bending, it's peak gear if you're into anything from African Head Charge to Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force.
Leading on from Shackleton and Scotch Rolex’s maiden merger, ‘Death by Tickling’ in 2023, the duo pull in the dextrous limbs of Omutaba - known from his work with STILL, Metal Preyers and HHY & The Kampala Unit - for a dervishing session of dubbed-out and tumbling polyrhythms and psychoactive vibes as Three Hands of Doom. Shackleton’s hand on the tiller is patently apparent but, as with his recent works with Heather Leigh and Wacław Zimpel, he proves a mutable collaborator and porous to the shared spirits of fellow electronic music journeymen Scotch Rolex and Uganda’s Omutaba in four swingeing sections defined by their joint ability to diffract the flow between rolling and irregular grooves.
WaqWaq Kingdom - Hot Pot Totto
Acclaimed Japan “minyo footwork” duo WaqWaq Kingdom - aka Shigeru Ishihara (DJ Scotch Egg / Seefeel) and Kiki Hitomi (ex-King Midas Sound) - return with feverishly joyous new album Hot Pot Totto, a bubbling hot pot of dance music that responds to ecological anxiety.
Scotch Rolex and Shackleton - Death by Tickling
It is an hour of out-there music which will appeal to those who like it challenging and adventurous. At the same time, you could get the impression that there is even a savage humour or a cosmic joke underlying the whole endeavour, hence the title, Death by Tickling. To round off the package, the brilliant artwork is courtesy of Zeke Clough who can always be depended on to bring the unexpected.
Artist: Scotch Rolex and Shackleton
Album: Death by Tickling
Label: Silver Triplet
Catalogue number: ST1
Artwork: Zeke Clough
Distribution: Hardwax
Scotch Rolex - TEWARI
New project Scotch Rolex, named after the popular Ugandan street food.
On "Tewari" released in Hakuna Kulala label, the Berlin-based noisemaker melts his breakcore, gabber and chiptune background into a fresh palette of influences, with help from collaborators MC Yallah, DUMA's Lord Spikeheart, Swordman Kitala, Chrisman and Don Zilla.
The record was assembled after Ishihara was invited to Uganda for a residency at the Nyege Nyege Villa in 2019 where he began experimenting, twisting trap and dancehall rhythms with 8-bit immediacy and the ragged energy of grindcore.
Managed to distill the essence of Nyege Nyege's scene-shaping yearly festival, where global dance and experimental forms come together under a banner of East African musical experimentation and physicality.
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Performance by Scotch Rolex with Shin Hyo Jin and Lord Spikeheart
Crossing Borders is an exclusive performance by the Japanese producer Scotch Rolex (alias DJ Scotch EGG), the Korean-German percussionist Shin Hyo Jin and the Uganda-based Grind Core singer Lord Spikeheart.
Namahage - Waku Waku Doom / Bathyscaphe
Super heavy keta-dub 12" by Namahage, DJ ScotchEgg's mysterious little side project on Zone Dog Records. Hand stamped with glow in the dark ink! Strictly limited 300 vinyls, no digital!
'Waku Waku Doom' on side A is a true low end epic. Hazy vocal scraps are flying over vast fx landscapes and percussion loops, all moving in lava lamp speed - until the track properly twists into phase two...
The beatless 'Bathyscaphe' on side B goes on a deep sea dive, balancing awe and terror as the submersible slowly descends deeper and deeper into the silent world of immense pressure. Intense journey!
Distributed by Rush Hour
Gooooose & DJ Scotch Egg - JAC
During the month of January 2020 Dj Scotch Egg went to Shanghai to work on a residency with the label SVBCVLT, the result of this residency is a collaboration with the artist Gooooose, the 12" vinyl EP is out on SVBCVLT label, and includes a featuring by Swordsman and remixes by Slickback and Seven Orbits & TSVI
Swordman Kitala X Sekelembele Split 7" Vinyl
Ruinous rave tackle on both sides of this plate, dialling up the energy of ‘90s Kingston and Brixton to equatorial boiling point with rowdy and industrial scale riddims supplied by two Japanese mutants. DJ Scotch Egg renames himself after Uganda’s favourite street food with a hardcore mix of dancehall and frenchtek strapped to rasping, barked vox by Swordman Kitala, while DJ Die Soon follows with a jabbing steppers beat for producer/MC Sekelembele, debuting on record like a turnt Elephant Man with ‘Moto Nyama’.
Residence in Nyege Nyege Studios, Kampala, Uganda
In 2019 DJ Scotch Egg had a residency with Musicboard Berlin with the Nyege nyege Crew in Kampala, Uganda. The result is a fizzy concoction that melds scotch egg's signature high-energy mix of Japanese traditional music, grindcore, future-trap,mutant dancehall, gabber and the cross-rhythmical mayhem of African Shingheli, Gqom, and Kuduro grooves.
The result of the residency will be an album called Scotch Rolex, released soon on the label Hakuna Kulala
MusicBoardBerlin - Hakuna Kulala - Nyege Nyege Tapes
WaqWaq Kingdom
WaqWaq Kingdom is a Japanese tribal bass duo, consisting of Kiki Hitomi (King Midas Sound, Black Chow, Dowkkebi Q) and Shigeru Ishihara. Both are originally from Japan, lived in the U.K. for over a decade and are now based in Leipzig and Berlin. The lyrics and visuals are drawing a deep influence from ancient Shinto mythology and the Japanese “Matsuri” festivals that honor the local gods, “Kami-sama”. WaqWaq Kingdom’s hypnotic and shamanic live performances are an intense time warp experience that re-connect their animistic roots with the future of urban neon colors. WaqWaq Kingdom genre and time bending sound is like a psychedelic Nabe hot pot: melting Japanese traditional style Minyo with Jamaican dancehall, footwork, dub, techno, tribal polyrhythms and Super Nintendo soundtracks.
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Ethnique Punch & DJ Scotch Egg - Kanpai
“KANPAI” is the first collaboration album where electrifying beats and rich soundscape of DJ Scotch Egg meets nocturnal, mystical voice and sharp flows of Ethnique Punch. Their first collaboration work “Kanpai” comes with large soundscape within groovy, punchy, metaphorical twists of Al’Eksan’s deep grawling vocals and multilayered experiments in dynamic bass shift of Shigeru Ishihara’s dubby hypnotic productions. KANPAI is a salute to all the embodied souls in the universe. As part of them, we exist, we suffer, we enjoy, and we become a cocoon finally. It's very pleasant process, but also arrogant too. Don’t take it too serous bur it’s not a joke. It holds many states of mind. We think, we see, and we wonder about unseen... KANPAI!
SeeFeel
Seefeel formed during 1992 in London, England; with Mark Clifford on guitar, Mark Van Hoen on bass, Justin Fletcher on drums and Sarah Peacock on vocals and guitar. During 1992, Mark Van Hoen was replaced by Daren Seymour on bass. They released their first EPs and first album on the British independent label Too Pure in 1993. Seefeel's music was stylistically situated at the intersection of dream pop/shoegaze and ambient techno/IDM. The band signed with electronic label Warp Records in 1994, after which point Seefeel's music became much darker and more abstract. Seefeel's third album, (CH-VOX), was released in 1996 on Rephlex. Following (CH-VOX) Seefeel went on an extended hiatus from releasing new material until the reissue of their first album, Quique, in 2007 which included formerly unreleased material. Seefeel performed their last live concert with the original lineup in October 1997 alongside Boards of Canada.
Devilman
From the crumbling debris of an apocalyptic futurescape DEVILMAN invade with a sprawling beast sound. Skewed sonics, demonic riffs and unapologetic catastrophe seep through the cracks to invade your mind and twist your perspective. DEVILMAN comprises of three strong individual talents, Shige (DJ Scotch Egg) on bass, Gorgonn (Dokkebi Q) live mixing, and Taigen Kawabe (Bo Ningen) providing vocals. They are part of a secret underground organisation fronted by the mysterious MR. D.
Drum Eyes
Band formed as a collaboration between Iida Kazuhisa (Boredoms) and Shigue. Experts at whipping up a hypnotic maelstrom of tribal drumming trip-outs infused with sludgy doom and weird electronics. Drum Eyes songs can twist 180 degrees and sound equally as beamed-in from some alien kingdom, taking the weirdest parts of Krautrock and hurling punk-synth, crushing walls of ambience and 8-bit frazzle into the mix with relish. Dum Eyes and its flexible structure, toured extensively, included supporting EU tour for Damo Suzuki, gathered different musicians joining in each show. Between the large list of members/collaborators, we find:
Iida Kazuhisa - drums
Kathy Albericy - violin
Kai Wong - Guitar
Danny Tobert - Guitar
Sam Dook - Drums
Tom Barnes - Drum
David Campbell - Drums
Liam Sparkes - Drums
Akiko Matsuura - Drums
Shige - Bass, laptop and keyboard
Chris anderson - Sax and Keyboard
Henry Colins - Noise
Alistair Strachan - Trumpet
Ross Weston - Sax
Jo Eagle - Horns
Tim Wilton - House Ingenieer
Goh Nakada - FX
Damo Suzuki - Vocals
Upset the Rhythm - Discogs - Spotify
Dj Scotch Bonnet
DJ Scotch Bonnet is the distorted beats & bass solo project of Shigeru Ishihara. A maverick, crazed with energy and excess creativity. Swapping GameBoys and 8-bit limitation for a hefty distortion unit, Ishihara delves deep into the world of bass-driven hip-hop breaks. DJ Scotch Bonnet melds dense distorted beats with his signature pop sensibility, referencing Scorn, The Bug, and the dance music culture of new home-town, Berlin. Scotch Bonnet has collaborated with rappers like American MC Sensational (The Jungle Brothers), K-The-I??? (Ninja tune) and Paul PM (Puppetmastaz)
Small But Hard
Small But Hard Records is an independent record label based between Berlin and London.the label is a collaboration between Shigeru Ishihara (Dj Scotch Egg), artist/print-maker Simon Fowler (co-founder of London based Cataract Press) and Daisuke Imamura (Dj Die Soon). All aspects of the visual presentation of the label, have been taken care by Bryce Davesne (electiic), Simon Fowler and Marco Heinzmann (Super Quiet)
Wrong Music
English label devoted to unconventional music, focusing mainly on breakcore.
Cofounded between Shige, Henry, Ben and Matt
