Susumu Mukai (born c.1974,

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

),Colley, Claire (2003)
Zongamin ''Zongamin''
", musicOMH, retrieved 2010-06-25 better known as Zongamin, is a UK-based

ese-born musician and producer.

Biography

Mukai was born in Japan and moved to

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

at the age of eleven.Walton, Matt (2003)
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",

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, 28 March 2003, retrieved 2010-06-25 He attended

Summerhill School Summerhill School is an independent (i.e. fee-charging) day and boarding school in Leiston, Suffolk, England. It was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than ...

where he started playing

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

and other instruments. He went on to study at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

, and was signed to Mike Silver's Flesh Records label. Mukai explained his stage name: "When I started this imaginary band I wanted to name it with a new word." Zongamin live band was formed in 2000. Past and current members : Nathalie Fowler. Mao Yamada. Leon Harris. Leo Taylor. Will Sweeney. Robert Green. His self-titled debut album was released in 2003 by

XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been run and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. It releases an average of six albums a year. T ...

, and met with a positive critical response;

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave it a three-star rating, commenting on the "wealth of ideas" and an "endearing 'anything goes' playfulness" on the album.

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

gave it 7.3/10,Bryant, Andrew (2003)
Zongamin ''Zongamin''
,

, 28 May 2003, retrieved 2010-06-25

Gigwise.com ''Gigwise'' is a British online music news site featuring music news, photos, album reviews, music festivals, concert tickets and video content. Founded in June 2001, the site is based in London, England. History Gigwise was launched in 2001 in ...

also gave the album an enthusiastic review, calling it "a lo-tech electro-fuzz monster".Bruzon, Tim (2003)
Zongamin 'Zongamin'
, Gigwise.com, 24 September 2003, retrieved 2010-06-25 He has also acted as a remixer for

Air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

,Air Remixed by Zongamin
, aversion.com, 12 March 2004, retrieved 2010-06-25 Playgroup, Graffiti, John Cale, Mickey Moonlight, Headman, Sandro Perri, Alexis Taylor and

Seelenluft Beat Solèr, (born 8 July 1971) better known by his stage name Seelenluft, is a Swiss record producer of electronic music. Career Seelenluft is Beat Soler from Zürich. He has been playing music since he was seven. He made a number of records ...

.Kellman, Andy " Zongamin Biography,

, retrieved 2010-06-25 Since 2015, he has been a member of

Vanishing Twin A vanishing twin, also known as twin resorption, is a fetus in a multigestation pregnancy that dies '' in utero ''and is then partially or completely reabsorbed. In some instances, the dead twin is compressed into a flattened, parchment-like st ...

. Mukai is currently also a member of Becker & Mukai, Off World, Stalactite and School Of Hypnosis.

Musical style

His music has been described as "incorporating left-field disco, funk, hip-hop, and house, along with good old sloppy garage rock and spaghetti Western soundtracks",Kellman, Andy " ''Zongamin'' Review,

, Retrieved 25 June 2010 and "post punk, somewhat cheesy funkdom interspersed with droning catchy dance hooks". Gigwise.com described his debut album as "a schizophrenic shot of spaghetti western mayhem, angular foot-stamping menace, and made-in-the-kitchen-sink funk".

Discography

Albums

* * * *"O!" (Vinyl EP; 12"; total 4 tracks). Multi Culti. 2018.

Singles

*"Serious Trouble" (2000), Flesh *"Tunnel Music" (2001), Flesh *"Spiral" (2002), XL *"Serious Trouble" (2003), XL *"Hotel 17" (2004), Kitsuné *"Bongo Song" (2005), Ed Banger

References

{{Authority control Japanese musicians Living people Musicians from Osaka Kitsuné Musique artists 1974 births