Zongamin

Susumu Makai (born c.1974, Osaka, Japan),^[1] better known as Zongamin, is a UK-based Japanese-born musician and producer.

Biography

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]

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",^[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]

Discography

Albums

• Zongamin (2003), XL
• Flesh Tapes (2004), Flesh

Singles

• "Serious Trouble" (2000), Flesh
• "Tunnel Music" (2001), Flesh
• "Spiral" (2002), XL
• "Serious Trouble" (2003), XL
• "Italian Fireflies" (2004), Kitsuné
• "Bongo Song" (2005), Ed Banger

References