食品まつり A.K.A FOODMAN 核 [NUCLEUS] FT. ​ARISTOPHANES 貍貓

It's always a really fun thing to experience a new song from Aristophanes貍貓. She's a rapper from Taiwan who is also a teacher (mainly helping to write children write stories, as I found out when I interviewed her) – the subjects she talks about in her raps range from the politics of Taiwan and the prospective lives of unborn children, to her own versions of Chinese folk tales; her voice is elastic, shaped and pulled by its master to express feelings and passions in each rap very effectively.

But what's also exciting about Aristophanes is how she presents her work: each song is a collaboration with an awesome producer. There's Lidly's blissful beats, the harsh electro of Sonic Deadhorse, canooooopy's experimentalism and Petechan's traditional boom-bap breed of hip hop, and the chill of Luviia (who recently provided a guest mix for YES/NO), to name a few. It's a varied bunch of beatsmiths and trackmakers who help to augment Aristophanes' intense flow sharp, interesting soundscapes.

And it's happened again. She's collaborated with Nagoya-based trackmaker, DJ and painter, 食品まつり aka Foodman (the Japanese, 'shokuhin matsuri', means 'Food Festival') to produce the wildly experimental track '核' – which in Chinese ('Hé') means 'Nucleus' or 'Nuclear' or 'Stone' (just 'Nucleus' – 'Kaku' – in Japanese). Prepare your ears.

I've been meaning, or rather waiting, to write about Foodman for a while, having kept my eyes and ears on his SoundCloud since I stumbled across it a few months ago; right now, it seems a good a time as ever to feature his surreal, noisy music. Screaming into life, his latest work with Aristophanes features endlessly distorted samples, placed in simple melodic patterns that sound like electric guitar riffs put through an industrial blender with a ZX Spectrum. The almost indistinct beat carries with it a juke rhythm punctuated by booming heart-thuds of kick drum, your mind picking out the typical syncopation carried in the genre amidst the atonal white noise screeches and permitting your head to nod a little. It's juicily grating.

The perfect partner for Foodman's fractured sounds, Aristophanes' rap is typically frenetic, marked by burning intakes of breath and the spitting out of sharp syllables in a harsh yet near-lethargic, sometimes sensual whispering. Her flow is vital and colourful, the perfect match for her words which are unique in that they discuss subject matter not typically discussed in rap. Through quantum mechanics and metaphysics she poses existential questions and statements: "Can you get closer to the truth after burning your imagination?" – "You need gods, so you create them" – "penetrate the line between life and death by your thoughts." Thankfully there is a translation of her Mandarin rhymes, and what becomes evident is Aristophanes' eminence as a cerebral, poetic rapper whose lyrics aim to provoke as much thought and cause as much alarm as other rappers do; but being an individual person, she does it her way.

Read through those lyrics by clicking round about here.

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LAZY INTERVIEW #15: ARISTOPHANES 貍貓

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← #14: CUUSHE #16: SAMUEL →

I have a lot of time for the very talented Aristophanes貍貓. Long story short, she's a female rapper/MC from Taiwan who has collaborated with quite a few up-and-coming, experimental producers, including Canooooopy and Lidly. I can't remember how, but I first stumbled across her song 'The Peach Blossom' - it's a dreamy showcase of Aristophanes' evocative and effortless flow, drenched as it is with tones that ache with longing. Her voice is one that sticks with you: whether it's slow and considered or delivering rapid-fire rhymes, it's distinct and expressive.

It's at this point that I'd like to mention that I know she raps in Mandarin. I can't understand Mandarin. Can you? I reiterate: I can't. But it's possible to actually enjoy music without knowing what people are saying - how many raps do you know all the words to without looking up the lyrics? Yeah, exactly. It is, however, very nice to know what the lyrics are. With Aristophanes herself rapping about many things, from Nietszche and the politics of Taiwan, to old Chinese folk tales and love, it would be cool to know exactly how she is approaching these subjects. On the plus side, we can be sure that her delivery, the expression she puts into delivering her lyrics, is spot-on.

Anyway, without further ado, here is some insight into the inner workings of the creative mind that is Aristophanes - yep, it's another Lazy Interview, a semi-regular Q&A with artists I've written about on YES/NO before. Read on read on...

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
　I’m a female MC from Taiwan. Most people call me Aristophanes in the music world (yes I picked this Greek name as my stage name), and many people call me Li (but this name has nothing to do with my real name though it looks like a Chinese name). Now I am a teacher, and my job is helping children to write stories.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
　I had never thought of making music till I listened to the first Chinese rap song 3 years ago. I tried to write novels and danced a lot then. I love reading. But I rarely listened to music. My love of music is generated from my love of literature. The very first time I found that rap lyrics are like poems, I thought that I could also express myself like a rapper.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
　Actually I’ve never thought of how I would describe my sound. Only listeners have the right to describe. I just create sound and make myself die in the sound after each song is completed. I rarely listen to my songs. To me, they are just fossils and specimens. I’m more interested in the unknown creature - my songs not yet written down.

　What makes my style stand out? The culture I grow up in and my instinct do. My body, my voice and my thoughts are shaped in Taiwan. And my instinct captures my love, anger and my definition of art. Maybe my gender plays an important role in it, too. But I don’t want to emphasize all of them. If someone took off my culture, my instinct and my gender, my independent soul would be naked but still feel safe because it’s fearless to say anything.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
　I don’t know. I always listen to my songs in my studio because I’m recording them. Sometimes in the taxi because I need to memorize the lyrics in case I fuck up in shows. I believe that’s the worst place and time to listen to my music. Any place and any time are better than that! I’m not sure if I claimed that the best way to listen to my music is standing on the top of a palm tree whilst a storm tries to pull you down, would somebody try?

What inspires you most when writing a song?
　Mostly images. Sometimes just a color came up in my mind, and I thought “the color of this beat is blue!” or something like that. So I use this to take pictures with my eyes in my life, like a bee collecting pollen. Sometimes movies and stories inspires me.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
　Maybe the first time I heard Jean Grae in The Roots’ album. I was on my way home and listening their album “Tipping Point”. I fell in love with her flow then. She inspires me a lot!

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
　Akua Naru – The Journey Aflame
　Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo – Let Me Go
　Sainkho Namtchylak – Tuva Blues

Who do you most admire in the music world?
　This is a difficult question because there are so many great minds existing in the music world. When it comes to MCs, I admire Sibitt [of Triune Gods] (a genius based out of Japan), Talib Kweli (because of his flow) and Akua Naru (the ways she presents her voice). Producers like J Dilla, Madlib, 9th wonder… and some musicians who are not defined as “hip hop” artists, like Sainkho Namtchylak.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
　The great minds that can dig deeper into the possibilities of humanity will be the future of music. That’s the future. Maybe it sounds ridiculous because it seems there's no straight relevance between my answer and music. But what are we thinking of the “future”? I believe this term has something to do with “progress”. Not only the passing of time, but also something new and better generates “future”. I don’t think the form of music is the most important thing to define “what’s new”. So many styles pop out then disappear in a short time, and I pay no attention to their short life and I don’t define them as future. Only the great minds can make the future no matter what kind of music they make. If there is no “progress”, the coming 10 years may be the longer “present” instead of being the future.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
　I don’t know. It depends on the people, the music, and the thoughts I will meet in the future. If I have known what it is, I must have made it already. But if you need some clearer answers, yes I’m planning to make my first album now.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
　Literature maybe. I love any kind of arts but most of time I read. I don’t have any time for writing now and maybe I will write some stories in the future.

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I don't think anyone before has written as much back to me as Aristophanes has. Chatting with her after this interview, the 23-year-old told me that the hip hop scene in Taiwan is not mature at all - it's burgeoning, fledgling, but it's not there yet. As a result, whether she wants to be or not, Aristophanes is a pioneer. I've not heard of or from many other, if any, female MCs from the island nation, so for Li - another name Aristophanes goes by - it's an opportunity to make a lasting a mark on a scene that seems to have a long way to go.

So that's one thing. Her pioneering spirit. Then there's her honesty - especially in saying that "rarely listened to music" before she discovered rap - which not only makes her a more likeable person but which also galvanises her as an artist with integrity. In addition, her comments about the future of music are refreshing, inspired and inspiring in their own right. In some ways, it's very true that the style or form of music does not matter. Pushing the boundaries is what matters, exploring sounds and ways of expression is the true way to find the future.

What more can I say that she hasn't already said with succinct sincerity? All I do hope is that Aristophanes can help become a part of the future of music, rather than an extension of the present - her determination to truly progress and make something different, forgetting what her contemporaries may be up to, seems to be evidence of this. In any case, PLEASE check out her music I do highly recommend it.

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← #14: CUUSHE #16: SAMUEL → - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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SONIC DEADHORSE FT ARISTOPHANES 貍貓 THE ARRESTED

Wow well I have been sort of quietly anticipating something new from Aristophanes (貍貓) and here it has arrived - with knobs on. Yes with knobs on - it's an English expression. With bells on. That's right, in addition, another talent comes screaming out of Taiwan: Sonic Deadhorse. The song is technically his, Aristophanes only featuring on it, but featuring or not, she still totally kills it with her vocal skill.

If you feel like you're missing something, Aristophanes is a young female rapper from Taiwan whose talents I am rather enjoying at the moment. I wrote about her song 'The Peach Blossom' a while back, and I also wrote something about her for Dummy magazine too. She raps in Mandarin Chinese, which you'd think would cause a problem with me not being able to understand Mandarin Chinese and all, but two things: a) she provides the lyrics, so you can translate them and get an idea of what's being said; b) the WAY she raps, the way she expresses herself through her voice, is very evocative. So there you go.

Sonic Deadhorse, on the other hand, is very new to me. One thing's for sure: he packs a punch. In this song at least, 'The Arrested', he crosses genres to deliver an all-out assault on the ears. It's a sound of aggression, frustration, anger, but crafted very well instead of being just a mess of sounds which can happen too often with this kind of style. He calls it "music for lonely urban women and men, the youths captivated by literature and art, dumb rockers, and the crazy ravers" - "post rock whimpers affecting sorrow violent electro." I like those descriptions.

So on we go. I've coloured the SoundCloud player the colour of the song: bright passionate maraschino-cherry-red.

First of all there's a sample from a French film floating over chilled piano tinkling (I'm guessing it's from a Truffaut film). Then without warning, the song cracks its knuckles and gets down, a flurry of wound-up snares battling together in a violent breakbeat style, low synth earthquaking below. The beat changes throughout the song, going from that frenetic style into dubstep by way of a glitchy break, and then for the finale the two patterns almost become mixed together. That last part - wow. It's a hurricane of noise, epic-sounding electro-rock brought to an untamed boiling point with wild synths and thunderous percussion, Aristophanes' voice now distorted and megaphonic, sounding every bit as explosive as the music behind her voice.

It's interesting because I wouldn't have thought that her rap would suit a song like this, but evidently it does. She whips up her own storm, adding to the already-savage tempest that the beat has created, skilfully weaving in and out of insignificance, sadness, righteousness, beginning the song in a small empty room speaking as another person but by the end admitting that she was that person all along, was projecting her emotions onto her, yet is still in that small empty room. Looking through the lyrics, although Google Translate is far from perfect, you get a sense of how able she is to at expressing her emotions - and honesty is key for a rap that's gonna sound any good. And it does sound good. Sounds damn good.

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ARISTOPHANES 貍貓 THE PEACH BLOSSOM

Well I have to be honest, this is something that I didn't think would exist. It's very bad of me I suppose because any kind of music can come from anywhere. It just so happens that this is quite different at the same time as being unusual, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I found this track the other day and I was blown away by it. Not only by the general sound of the music but by the voice too - it's a haunting, mesmerising voice.

And it is the voice of Aristophanes 貍貓 (I think her real name is Li Mou but those Chinese characters are like a play on words and say... I don't know what they say: raccoon cat? leopard cat? I dunno), a Taipei-based (Taiwanese) MC who rhymes and flows in Mandarin Chinese. It's that thing again of not being able to understand something, yet understanding or actually FEELING the emotion or atmosphere that has been brought across by the way the words have been sung, or rapped in this case.

Also the track has been produced by Tokyo producer Lidly, who makes beats for many people. These particular beats he's made, however, are gloriously chilled, like a memory that moves as a slowmotion skateboard compilation or long pans of sun-tinted afternoon landscapes. A truly beautiful hip hop sound that Li Mou's achingly passionate vocals, starkly echoing, almost nude in the way that they float with languor atop the fluid beats, compliment excellently.

What a chilled vibe, but at the same time there is something agitated and pained in Li Mou's flows, especially in the break where she ups the tempo and lets out a heartrending 'ahhh!' before the beat comes back in, accompanied by a brain-tilting synth solo that sounds as stretched out as Li Mou's earlier vocals. Lovely.

The interesting thing about this song (aside from, y'know, how good it sounds) is that the lyrics actually deal with a take on a classical Chinese story called The Peach Blossom Land (written in 421 AD by Tao Yuanming). In the story, a fisherman sails up a river in a forest made up entirely of blossoming peach trees to its source, where he finds a utopian village of people living in harmony. In the version told by Aristophanes, a man dreams of finding the place, travels a long time to get there, but finds it ruined. Bummer. But you can definitely hear the dreamlike atmosphere in the song, the long journey, as well as the sadness of a destroyed kind of Shangri-La.

Check out Aristophanes' SoundCloud cause there are some other great tracks on there, featuring fresh collaborations with a number of talented producers and of course her distinctive vocal flow. She is also involved with MICRO'Session, a group that puts on nights for Taiwanese DJs, beatmakers and MCs.

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