An irresistible stew of funk, hip hop, hardcore, melody and fractured pop, Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto slice and dice samples and rhythms like master sound chefs. The two Japanese-born women met up in New York when they played in a punk band called Leitoh Lychee, which translates to “frozen lychee nut.” In 1994, they formed Cibo Matto — an Italian phrase meaning “food madness” — and continued in the food-obsessed vein with the Warner Bros. release of Viva! La Woman, featuring songs such as “Birthday Cake,” “Know Your Chicken” and “Beef Jerky.” They hooked up with Sean Lennon, percussionist Duma Love and drummer Timo Ellis for 1999’s Stereotype A., a layered, undulating, funk-fire odyssey. Since then, Hatori and Honda been involved in countless cool projects, including a hip-hop version of John Zorn’s game piece, Cobra. Through Sept. 10, they’re featured in Volume: Bed of Sound, an installation curated by Elliot Sharp and Alanna Heiss where 60 sound artists — including Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Arto Lindsay and Ornette Coleman — are experienced through headphones on a large futon bed at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. They’ll spice up the Concert of Colors with a melting pot of tantalizing, danceable, sample-delic sci-fi sound scapes.
Cibo Matto performs Sunday, July 15, at 5 p.m. on the Main Stage at Chene Park in downtown Detroit (at Atwater and Chene, on the Detroit River). The official concert schedule can be found at www.concertofcolors.org.
Be sure to check out the rest of MT's special features in celebration of the Concert of Colors:
- "Mixing the waters" — An introduction to the Concert of Colors (and some of the artists performing there), where exotic world sounds mingle and flow across boundaries and borders.
- Amina — Defying categorization, this Tunisian Parisienne’s sensual and tender voice seems at ease floating between the worlds of drum and bass, jungle, Asian and traditional West African beats.
- Burnt Sugar — Having updated Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew with a multilayered mix of electric, dreamy funk, this ever-evolving jazz-session collective just keeps getting deeper.
- Cheb Mami — An Algerian native whose return to the desert breaks musical borders. Sting calls him “one of the greatest voices in world music today.”
- Lágbájá — A colorful, enigmatic post-Fela phenomenon, mixing elements of Afrobeat and drumming with Western pop twists.
- Lo´ Jo — A French group that brings Europe and Africa together with the sweet strains of a seductive dance ... a musical trance.
- Los Lobos — Quintessentially American, this long-lived East Los Angeles-based combo mixes rock, ranchera and more with an authenticity that can never be questioned.
- Poncho Sanchez — This Latin-jazz bandleader extraordinaire keeps the Cal Tjader flame alive with his Afro-Cuban pulsations.
