Susumu Makai (born c.1974, Osaka, Japan),[1] better known as Zongamin, is a UK-based Japanese-born musician and producer.
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Makai grew up in rural Japan and moved with his family to East Anglia at the age of eleven.[2] He attended Summerhill School where he learned to play bass guitar and went on to play in several bands.[2] He went on to study at the Royal College of Art and began experimenting with sampling and recording, and was signed to his friend Mike Silver's Flesh Records label.[2]
Makai explained his stage name: "When I started I wanted it to sound like a band from another dimension. So I came up with a different word for it."[2]
His self-titled debut album was released in 2003 by XL Recordings, and met with a positive critical response; Allmusic gave it a three-star rating, commenting on the "wealth of ideas" and an "endearing 'anything goes' playfulness" on the album.[3] Pitchfork Media gave it 7.3/10,[4] Gigwise.com also gave the album an enthusiastic review, calling it "a lo-tech electro-fuzz monster".[5]
He has also acted as a remixer for Air,[6] Playgroup, Grafiti, and Seelenluft.[7]
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",[3] and "post punk, somewhat cheesy funkdom interspersed with droning catchy dance hooks".[1] 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".[5]