What on Earth is a Kyoka?

Simply a solo artist whose cut-up-and-dance laptop electronica suggests more screwsloose than fully tightened? Her style has seen her labelled as anything from a pop idol toa noise artist. And as it is usually the way, the truth lies somewhere in between. Starting her solo career at university as a side-project to her school band, Kyokaquickly found herself favouring ever-more unusual outlets for her scatterbrain sound.Finding J-pop utterly unpalatable, she began to look overseas, finding live shows in Europe and the US as well as presenting her own show on Britain’s Resonance FM,‘Postcards From Kyoka’.Now preparing an EP for German label Onpa, and with the ‘Spacy Space’ EP on sale in Japan and America, Kyoka is finding fans all over the world – from Japaneseexperimental king Ryuichi Sakamoto, by whom she was invited to join his project, to Stooges/Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, who played her music almost every time of his recent podcast shows and who recorded bass for her sound. Her songs have ranked inthe Top 2, Top 5, Top 20 and Top 50 radio charts in Japan and the US, and Amsterdamfanzine Daruma has described her as a “freestyle broken pop beat artist”, a description that fits nicely, thanks very much.On top of all that, she performs in unhinged female duo Groups, who have also been invitedby Sakamoto to join the other project; has collaborated with Mike Watt (of the Stooges, Minutemen) CurseOvDialect (mush records), PandaNo Panda (Kung Fu Records, Intik),Hypo (Active Suspension, Spymania, Afterhours, Intik) etc.; appears in TV ads forHonda both as musician and model, alongside modelling for Aveda (artistic director is Miho Matuura); columnist for a magazine; and has had music on compilations –ChromeHearts Magazine vol.6,vol.7.-in Japan, Hong Kong and America. Not bad for a girl who“just wanted to follow her honest taste”. “A very talented Asian Artist for the 21st Century” –Last FM
http://www.myspace.com/kyoka