Japanese artist Tohji has today shared his new single, ‘Phenomeno’, out via Eastern Margins – the UK label home to alternative Asian culture.
The beginning of a concerted effort to bring a progressive Japanese movement to the west, ‘Phenomeno’, produced with with close friend Dark0, is a surrealist dreamscape integrating glitchy Eurotrance synth-work and allusions to cybernetic video game culture that both Tohji and Dark0 share an affinity for.
‘Phenomeno’ is Tohji’s first song sung in English, a diasporic experiment born from time spent in London where he felt caught between two cultures. Tohji says: “it’s not about a dichotomy between Japan and the rest of the world, that’s an outdated view… but cultural borders are always shifting and I want my work to feel like it’s at these new intersections”.
From intimate secret shows with NTS in Osaka’s docklands, to headlining both Japan’s largest hip-hop festival Pop Yours and Tokyo’s iconic Boiler Room – heralded as one of the most energetic crowds the platform has ever showcased – Tohji is bringing his live spectacles worldwide. In 2024, he’ll headline a slew of European shows this April: partnering with FORM and Eastern Margins for his London show at Fire, with Rêves and SUPER!, before finishing his European leg at Les Nuits Botanique Festival in Brussels, sharing the lineup with Hannah Diamond. Get your tickets here.
—
—
Photo Credit: Nikita Ono
