Noise and hip-hop often seem to stand at opposite ends of the musical spectrum, seldom touching, let alone fusing together as thoroughly as they do on Kouhei Matsunaga and Sensational’s late 2010 Skam Records release, “Sensational Meets Koyxen.”
Here, experimental noise is conjoined to hip-hop, resulting in a high-energy album whose every track presents itself as an unrelenting audio attack. Both musicians are formidable in their own right.
Sensational (formerly Torture) debuted in 1993 on Jungle Brothers’ J. Beez Wit The Remedy, then busted out a strong solo with 1997’s Loaded With Power, a maverick, lo-fi piece of speaker wrecking bass, chest-caving beats, and gruff, marble-mouthed self-aggrandizement.
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httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=y_9Nmv8jNqE
Koyxen aka Kouhei Matsunaga grew up in Osaka, Japan listening to hardcore techno and rap and studied architecture. He started to make music back in 1992 focusing on the experimental. Kouhei has worked with artists like Merzbow, Asmus Tietchens, Conrad Schnitzler, Autechre’s Sean Booth and Mika Vainio (pan sonic), Max Turner, Paul PM (Puppetmastaz).
With “Sensational meets Koyxen”, Skam sparked off the second set of collaborative tracks between Kouhei Matsunaga and Sensational following their debut for Wordsound in 2006.
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http://https://youtube.com/watch?v=Czs7yBq4dHI
Created and recorded in Berlin, Osaka, Japan, and Brooklyn, NYC in 2009-2010, the beats are strictly top drawer business, Kouhei dropping his more f**ked-up or avant-garde inclinations to keep the flow dope and carefully controlled for Sensational’s disjointed verbal acrobatics, the two gelling like concrete powder and water.
This event is highly recommended by Digital in Berlin! We are giving away 2 x 2 tickets. Just send a mail to win@digitalinberlin.de with “Sensational meets Koyxen” as the subject.
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Kometenmelodien: Sensational meets Koyxen LIVE
presented by D/B, Noisey & Byte FM
Sunday, 17 November 2013 | 20:00 CET
Berghain Kantine | Am Wriezener Bahnhof | 10243 Berlin/Friedrichshain
skam-records.com | berghain.de
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