Six years ago at a party in Brighton, England, a hooded Japanese man entered the room and proceeded to tear up the place using only a Game Boy and a megaphone. Sofa cushions were flying all over the place as the crowd at this impromptu gig pogoed manically up and down to a frenetic blizzard of blips and bleeps generated by the makeshift instrument. This was the first time I encountered DJ Scotch Egg, an expatriate who hammered a name out for himself in Britain's burgeoning chiptune scene, with an storm of grimy aggravating gabba beats.
The start of April sees DJ Scotch Egg, aka Shigeru Ishihara, splat back down onto home turf to perform at SonarSound Tokyo. The two-day event will also feature acts such as Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke, Ryoji Ikeda, Battles and Kode9. On Tuesday, it was announced that Karl Hyde and Darren Price of Underworld fame were also set to fly into Tokyo for a shot at the decks.
Ishihara released his last album, "Scotch Egg's Encyclopedia of Hardcore Chiptune," three years ago. During that time he dabbled in other devices, but came back to that hand-held piece of hardware.
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