Some groups try to break the sound barrier by turning it up to 11. Other groups try to break the speed barrier, with pummeling drumbeats or lightning-fast guitar solos. Cibo Matto, however, breaks the communication barrier with its unique blending of traditions, sounds and expressions.
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Cibo Matto
The Shelter |
For Hatori, the eclecticism in her band's music is a way of life. As she explained in an interview with The Michigan Daily around the time of Cibo Matto's tour with Beck last summer, even the band's inception was due to cross-cultural meetings.
"I was just a music listener for a long time. Yuka has been here nine years, and she didn't do anything musical until she came here, and I didn't either until I came to America three years ago. I came here to study English, and I got really frustrated because, you know, I can't speak it! But I wanted to stay here and do something to have fun. So I started doing bands."
This sense of fun and creativity is present in all of Cibo Matto's music, from hip-pop rave-ups like "Beef Jerky" and "Birthday Cake" (from "Viva! La Woman") or "BBQ" off the group's new "Super Relax" EP, to wistful ballads like "Artichoke" and the current single "Sugar Water."
The process of recording these songs, according to Hatori, was as enjoyable as the music itself: "It was really nice. Working in a big studio like that really blew my mind. I felt like I was in a cockpit of a big airplane with all those controls in front of me."
Though the duo found recording their debut album exciting, it's in their performances where they experiment and tinker with sound. No song sounds quite like the recorded version, and according to Hatori, that's the point: "We like to change the way songs sound live, so it's more physical than on the record."
On first listening to Cibo Matto's music, one of the more unique things about the group is the prevalent use of food imagery. Nearly every track on the group's albums refers to food in the title, or uses it as a metaphor.
"Food is very close to human life," Hatori explained. "We'd die if we don't eat. It's very important. We should have respect for food. I like using food words as expression. Food words are very common all over the world. 'Know your chicken' is an Italian expression that means 'Know your shit' or something like that, and there's lots of food expressions in Japanese."
For someone whose music is so complex and diverse, Hatori likes to spend her time off the road in a simple way: "I just like to stay at home and listen to music. I like lots of different kinds of music. I'm a big fan of hip hop, like a Tribe Called Quest and Old Dirty Bastard. I've been a hip-hop fan since I lived in Japan. I'd love to work with some people like that."
Cibo Matto's flexible yet distinctive sound makes any kind of collaboration (it recently teamed up with Russell Simins of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and members of Skeleton Key to form Butter 08) an exciting and tasty contribution to the music world.
Miho and Yuka are Cibo Matto.