Off The Hook
Tokyo’s first MySpace battle hits Shibuya

Canada’s Peaches and Berlin’s Chicks On Speed have just brought their edgy sounds, outlandish costumes and political provocations through Tokyo. With the still unknown in Japan Rauberhohle on their way next weekend, this may be the season of electro-punk.

The upcoming visit by Rauberhohle (“robber cave” in German) is as the next installment of Scottish expat DJ POL Style’s Off The Hook events. POL Style launched OTH in Glasgow in 2001, and rekindled the flame in Tokyo after his recent move here. “OTH gives Japanese and foreigners alike the chance to showcase their own electronic music, as well as providing a stage for well-known American and European acts in Japan,” says the DJ.

The previous event featured Team Doyobi from challenging electronica imprint Skam/Fat Cat records, and a live/dance performance by Japan’s outrageous Omoashi Puf De Goraith, which ended gorily in a somen noodle fight.

POL Style is pitching this weekend’s OTH as a “MySpace Battle Event” because he met all the performers on the bill through the online community, where he maintains his own page (www.myspace.com/djpolstyle).

Headliners Rauberhohle emerged in 1999 when frontgirl Krawalla (“riot”) was, according to her bio, feeling bored. “A friend gave her a very little keyboard which had a lot of cute sounds and drumbeats. So she started to play on it like crazy and after a while there were some little melodies. She recorded it, mixed it together and later she also sang on it.”

Krawalla became obsessed and started to collect more and more “crappy childish instruments like stylophones, baby guitars, old computers… and everything that just can say ‘beep’ or ‘toot.’” She started her own website (www.megapeng.net) uploaded her songs, and began to get requests for gigs. “Since she was bored to death by laptop shows, but on the other hand was unable to play all the instruments by herself and sing at the same time… she thought of a plan. ‘Why don’t I come up with a puppet show that explains the story of the krawalla-madchen?’ She built up a small wooden ‘rauberhohle’ and asked her friend ‘the bear’ if he would go on tour with her and luckily he said yes.”

Rauberhohle have recently been part of a worldwide “Eurotrash” tour designed to upend static Abba-esque images of Europe, and have delighted punters with shows that manage to criticize conservative German culture through a stage act that features a Punch and Judy puppet show and firecrackers set to a soundtrack of DIY electro-punk.

Shibuya Aube, Dec 22. See club listings for details.

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