Last month, the return of Ultra Japan to Tokyo provoked the usual eye-rolls with its parade of EDM superstars gallivanting onstage to obviously pre-recorded sets. But trust Takahide Higuchi — the Nagoya-based producer better known as Shokuhin Matsuri aka Foodman — to see the funny side.
"It's a bit punk, isn't it?" he says, chuckling at what the current crop of dance music acts can get away with. "They're not doing anything — they just play something off a USB device and the crowd goes wild. I'm not sure, but it's probably the same with someone like Aphex Twin. He seems like the kind of person who'd do that."
Before the Warp Records heavyweight sends his lawyers calling, it's worth noting that Higuchi doesn't mean this as a criticism. Both in person and in his music, he delights in seeing what happens when things are done wrong, reveling in the creative potential of mistakes and mistranslations, and generally making a hash of it.
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