Many musicians have combined Eastern influences with British sensibilities to great effect.
One of the great record labels of the last decade for instance, Appleblim and Shackleton’s Skull Disco, was so appealing because of the way it incorporated a distinctly British sense of humour (titles included Soundboy’s Bones Get Chopped Up and Snorted, and the label’s name was a play on School Disco) with a droning, Eastern-influenced dubstep sound.
Dokkebi Q do something similar. Comprising producer Goh ‘Gorgonn’ Nakada and singer Kiki Hitomi, the pair make music influenced by dancehall, breakcore and noise, but filled with idiosyncrasies that Dokkebi picked up living and recording in East London: lyrics about kebabs, Dalston market, and plenty of references to the weather. As FACT writer Laurent Fintoni observed in his review of their debut album, Hardcore Cherry Bon Bon, their approach is “at once typical of Japanese electronic music experimentation, often fascinating because Japanese artists tend to incubate influences and sounds from outside of their geographical and linguistic isolation before regurgitating them in unique ways, and also different because Dokkebi made their music while living in London, itself a melting pot of cultures and sounds that has led to countless mutations of rave sounds and genres.”
Dokkebi Q have been supported by various touchstones of extreme music: they’ve worked with Goth Trad, and Gorgonn is currently recording with Japanese 8-bit God DJ Scotch Egg under the name Devilman. Most notably though, Hitomi was recruited by Kevin ‘The Bug’ Martin as the third member of his group King Midas Sound, and the pair have also began recording as Black Chow, teaming up for releases on Hyperdub and Swamp81.
“When I listened to her demos for the first time, I was bewitched straight away.”
According to the press release for Hardcore Cherry Bon Bon, you’re named after a mythical Korean beast. Could you tell me more? I’m a sucker for stuff like that.
Gorgonn: “When we were coming up with a name for our band, Kiki picked up a leaflet for an exhibition in Korea about Dokkebi. Dokkebi is a friendly demon from Korean folklore, we somehow liked the sound. Kiki is also into mythology, spiritualism; monsters and stuff we are both influenced by.
“There’s a famous Japanese ghost cartoon, Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro, if you watch it, you will get an idea where we are coming from:
“Anyway we thought it would be nice to choose a name relating to myths and spookiness. Also Kiki is half Korean, so she wanted to have a name relating to her roots, therefore it seemed appropriate.”
How, when and where did the two of you meet, and how did Dokkebi Q form?
Gorgonn: “At first, our relationship wasn’t for music. Kiki put the advert to look for a new flatmate and on the advert [it said] “we are musicans and artists, looking for a flatmate”, blah blah, blah. I thought it sounds pretty good, but I was a dirty looking dread at that time, so Kiki thought I wouldn’t pay rent regularly, and rejected me unfortunately.
“But she was looking for a producer to work with and I was looking for a collaborator. When I listened to her demos for the first time, I was bewitched straight away. Her voice has got lots of soulful energy and it was very powerful and melancholic somehow. She is really into Reggae and I wanted to make more dub-oriented music so I gave her the track I was working on. She just put a fresh vocal down, and we really loved it, it sounded like we had pushed forward the whole track to another level…then we naturally started working as a duo.”
What sort of music were you making at that early stage, and how does it compare to Hardcore Cherry Bon Bon?
Gorgonn: “We were already making dub-oriented music but it might have been a bit more grimy reggae. We were both trying to find out the best way to collaborate by using our respective backgrounds for maximum impact.
“Kiki introduced me more to reggae and ’80s dancehall stuff, while I gave her more industrial and experimental influences. So I reckon the whole sound of the album is something in between. When we were making the track ‘Cuckoo Clock’, we recorded a guitar that our friend played in Texas. The laid-back atmosphere in Texas and people there had really affected us and shaped how the track developed.
“The music in the album had changed a lot through our shared experiences, as we obviously had to learn about each other and each of our tastes…”
Your ties to Kevin Martin seem to run quite deep – the first time I saw you play live he was in the audience, and Hitomi you collaborate with him in King Midas Sound and Black Chow. How did the pair of you meet Kevin, and what sort of relationship do you have?
Hitomi: “When I met Gorgonn, he gave me loads of music that I had never listened to before. Breakcore, noisy jungle, noise, experimental brutal ragga etc. The Bug was one of his selections that he passed to me, and I still remember it was so shocking for me when I listened first time to The Bug’s ‘World War 3’.”
“Since I become a big fan of The Bug, I posted an invite to our gig at Plastic People on his myspace site. Luckily, he had listened to my vocal the week before in Japan, but had no idea who I was at that point…and he was interested in my vocal when he heard a Japanese compilation that we appeared on. Kevin thought we lived in Japan, but he found out we actually lived in Dalston.
“So, fortunately, he then came to see us at Plastic People. He asked me to do a dubplate on the ‘Poison Dart’ riddim, and I subsequently rapped a lyric called ‘Yellow Stories’,which I was about how Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc. get seriously racially discriminated against in London. I think he liked that intensity, and we worked together on more music and also artwork too. I am also an illustrator, and graphic designer, and was studying those disciplines before I became a singer.
“[Kevin] wanted me to do the cover for his ‘Ganja’ 12 inch. Actually he was so good at typography and we basically collaborated together in art too. When I was working on the ‘Ganja’ artwork, I used to come in his studio and he was working on King Midas Sound. There were songs that he was struggling to finish and one of them was ‘Earth a Kill Ya’. He played it to me and I started singing on the intro melody. He was like, “let’s record it”. So we came up with the lyrics pretty quickly and bang bang bang, finished. “Next was ‘Good Bye Girl’, then ‘Outtaspace’. I added the hint of spice into King Midas Sound, and now I’ve become a full member of our likkle freak collective…[laughs]. Also Kevin and I are really into reggae. He really liked the idea of combining my sweet voice with his heavy bass music. I do sing inna 80’s rock star chick gone crazy style on Dokkebi Q’s tracks, but I found myself learning less is more from Kevin’s direction, and I sing softer and even more minimally on Black Chow tracks. Kevin is a great foil in my profession and our friendship.”
Something Kevin once said when I interviewed him was that sonically, his goal is always to make extreme music – whether that’s extremely beautiful and precious, or extremely loud and powerful. Is that something you share? There’s not a lot of middle ground in Gorgonn’s production for instance: the colours are very vivid, there’s a lot of sudden switches from very loud to very quiet.
Hitomi: “We were definitely influenced by The Bug a lot vocal-wise and also musically. But I think Kevin’s sound is obviously quite different.
“We are far more colourful / dayglo and extrovert I feel, and Gorgonn’s productions are faster and more psychotic than Kevin’s work. We definitely share Kevin’s taste for extremes, but experiment with them in a different way. After all what would be the point of emulating Bug-style – we have invented our own kaleidoscopic, loud sound.”
“We share Kevin’s taste for extremes, but experiment with them in a different way. After all what would be the point of emulating Bug-style – we have invented our own kaleidoscopic, loud sound.”
Gorgonn, your productions nod to reggae, breakcore, jungle, all sorts. What sort of background do you have musically? What producers have inspired you over the years?
Gorgonn: “I have a classical music background since I was a kid, but noisy extreme music has always attracted me. My first shocking experience was early Napalm Death and Pantera.
“On-U Sound is one of my biggest influences. I like Techno Animal and I love psychedelic acid music too, like Moon Dog. Since I have come to UK, Iration Steppas had a huge impact for me…I definitely got influenced by odd, Japanese Anime songs and music from ’90 Jap TV commercials.
“Recently I like Cloaks’ production. And I’m now making music with DJ Scotch Egg as Devilman. Scotch Egg is an inspiration generator for me ‘cause he is a psychedelic nutter.”
Devil Man live at the De La Warr Pavilion 02.10.2009.
So metal and hardcore play a part in what you make? There are moments on the album, like the intro to ‘I Can’t Spell his Name’ and a lot of the bridges and dynamic swings that are almost like a digitized version of Neurosis.
Gorgonn: “Yes, as I said it was a primary encounter that made my brain blow up…I like repetitive dance music but I more like the music which has a story in one tune and sometimes becomes very loud and very quiet. Probably I’m still under the influence of that kind of metal music, so it naturally comes out. And maybe I had played the classic piano when I was a child so it would affect how I make compositions. Somebody said my tracks are like symptoms of hyperactivity disorder – I totally agree…”
Hitomi, how did you start singing? And which vocalists have influenced you? You remind me a lot of Carla Bozulich from Evangelista at times, if you know her.
Hitomi: “I did not know her till you told me. The band is heavy. She is very deep. I am going to check their music. I got influenced by Ari Up (from the Slits), Likkle Mai (Dry & Heavy), Mike Patton, White Mice, 15-16-17, Love Joy, Björk (Medúlla album), Diamanda Galas, CocoRosie, Hibari Misora, Sister Nancy, Chinza Dopeness, Warrior Queen and many other artists.
“Anyway I started singing because I really needed to sing. I had to throw myself into something completely new stuff so that I could run away from the reality that I was facing to at that time. It was 2005, five years ago and it was really heavy time for me. Divorce, no house, lost job, broken heart, insomnia, guilt trip etc…I was making music by myself and also was in a band called Land Ahoy for a year.
“I moved to Dalston and met Gorgonn in 2006, and seriously started writing music with him. The first song we made was ‘Black Vomit’. In medical terms it means “yellow fever” [laughs]. Anyway it’s about sins that you have to confess. This song got snapped up by lots of dubstep promoters, and we started being offered lots of shows. It was like a roller coaster this five years and yeah, now my profession is singing.”
“I started singing because I really needed to sing. I had to throw myself into something completely new stuff so that I could run away from the reality that I was facing to at that time.”
I love the way you have these British idiosyncrasies that crop up in your music, like lyrics about “mental mental chicken oriental” and references to Dalston Market and the weather. Do you find London inspiring? In what ways does it differ from back home?
Hitomi: “My gosh, London is full of stress in good way and bad way! I am really just surviving in London, and everyday something happens…even just taking my dog for walk in Hackney seems filled with adventure!
“My home town is a laid back suburb of Osaka. Japan is a good place to chill, eat fresh sashimi and sushi for me but you cannot get that creative inspiration like you find in London where I can be more myself and free here. Many different races, English weather, people, friends, music and underground cultures are so massive. I went back to Japan in 2004 to settle down again, but I could not be myself and I could not believe in whatever I was doing. I knew it will be hard to return and struggle back in London, however I had to come back here to be myself.”
Hardcore Cherry Bon Bon – tell us about the album. How long were you guys making it for, and what were you trying to achieve with it?
Gorgonn: “We were working on it since 2007 to 2009. I wanted to combine my musical background with Kiki’s pop elements, so that people could sing along to our album. It seemed like a really sick idea, which made me laugh, to have noisy, crazy Japanese weirdness with upfront pop lines.”
Hitomi: “I just liked bein’ corny and deep at the same time…it seemed funny to combine silliness and seriousness, and we were just happy to make songs and work on our album independently. There was no big plan, we just wanted to make an album for the Hell of it, and we realised then, how much we loved making music. Seemed fair enough.”
Did you have any particular highs or pitfalls when making it?
“Pitfalls for sure, like being permanently broke, which sucks for sure…Making the record was our battle with London, our past and the world. We wanted to make our own alien world in London. And highs, basically being able to play in SXSW in Texas, meeting up with musicians and audiences who dug our music, and finally releasing this bloody record and realising our album translates in any language, for anyone who wants to laugh at this stupid life.”
Lyrically, what do you usually sing and write about, Hitomi? Do you approach your lyrics and vocals differently when you’re in Dokkebi Q to when you’re in King Midas Sound?
Hitomi: “In Dokkebi Q, I wrote lots about life in London, dealing with racism, self-doubt, self encouragement, daily struggling and everyday stupidity, with a tongue in my cheek and lots of self-invented words. For King Midas Sound’s lyrics, I collaborate with Kevin and get influenced by Roger, and I share their taste for a journey from typical lovers rock to apocalyptic poems.
“For King Midas, I tend to write in a more classical way about global emotions. It’s less particular, but no less important.”
Tom Lea
Photography by CG Watkins
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