Take a quick spin through Siam Square or Chatuchak Market and it’s clear: Bangkok’s youth culture knows how to do retro. From deadstock sunglasses to modernist furniture, the past is not only present, but lovingly curated and feverishly consumed. The cool kids behind the Kitsch Cat project, however, are taking an obsession with a previous decade (namely the ’80s) to a whole new level.
Kitsch Cat was born a year ago when Thai electro-pop fixture Cesar B. De Guzman (aka Cyndi Seui) and graphic designer/musician Peera Suk-a-Suk (aka Yuri’s Nominee) began brainstorming on a music collaboration—something personal and separate from their day-jobs at indie label Smallroom Records. Soon their friend Jaree Thanapura (aka Gramaphone Children) joined in, and over weekly dinners at a Thonglor ramen joint, the concept evolved: a mini-label to push the electronic music envelope, through compilations, T-shirt design, a blog, and any other means necessary.
“We didn’t expect it to come out so ’80s,” Thanapura explains, “but it ended up that everyone was doing something relating to ’80s music, and it just snapped into place… kinda like velcro.” Velcro is cited as an influence in the liner notes of the first CD compilation, alongside “8-bit video games, vinyl toys, Rubik’s cubes, calculator watches, and spandex.”
The six artists on the compilation remix their reference points into something fresh. Juicy synths and shiny horns are chopped almost beyond recognition in D.J.S.C.P’s dense composition, while Gramaphone Children’s “One Pink Saturday” is a tweaked John Hughes film theme song. The King of Pop is alive and well in Cyndi Seui’s tracks, cross-shuffled and sped up for an impatient age.
After the CD’s release last fall, Kitsch Cat won admirers in France, Japan, and beyond (swamping De Guzman with lots of remix work for electro acts like Astrolabe and Freaku). Ironically, the local scene is discovering them from the outside-in, through international music blogs. Meanwhile the Cats are working on upcoming live shows, the next CD compilation and corresponding T-shirt, and perhaps even a custom-designed “Kitsch Cat” effects filter. Their grand plans to “create electro madness on the dance floor” are well under way.
Real name is Jaree but all my close friends pronounce it Jerry. I plopped out of my mother in one of America's southern states and resided around those parts for 12 years before moving to Bangkok, Thailand. Since I arrived to Thailand at a fairly tender age, I have never seen a microwave, toaster, blender, hot water heater or a refrigerator, and color television will hopefully be imported sometime soon.
In order to kill boredom I simply lay under palm trees while juggling coconuts next to my endangered pet monkey. I was very fortunate that Bangkok's black market for endangered animals, which is near my house, still had gibbons which can be bartered for a few imported candy bars, a bag of rice and half a bottle of premium grade fish sauce.
In Thailand, we still utilize elephants and water buffaloes as primary modes of transportation. Elephants are used for public transport while water buffaloes are for personal use. As gas prices have soared worldwide, over the past few years, both forms of transport are now very costly, especially during these harsh times of an economic slumber.
I recently lent my only water buffalo to a friend of mine, and he unfortunately rammed it into a wall one night while in a drunken stupor. My payment for first-party water buffalo insurance has not yet been paid for as of this year, so my damaged water buffalo now lays in the garage, in need of repairs, dead and smelling of rotting, decaying flesh. But luckily, since Thailand still conducts business transactions and payment through an old-fashion bartering system, my friend agreed to compensate my loss with 3 prized fighting cocks, a night with his wife, a large can of cinnamon and four bags of brown sugar. So for the meantime I walk or do somersaults to commute instead. But I am now proud to acknowledge that I'm the only dude on the block with a full can of imported cinnamon and bags of brown sugar—and boy does it attract the ladies!
Our government, surprisingly, is now deciding whether to import rickshaws from China, and once the rickshaw bill passes we will be provided with another state-of-the-art vehicle, how THOUGHTFUL and EXCITING!!! I am also proud to boast how Thailand is a rapidly developing country and will one day become a superpower within 500 to 1000 light years. And from the outlook of how democracy is being conducted, we are definitely veering towards a sound political system and will hopefully become an unprecedented example for other countries to follow suit. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!
Whenever the opportunity arises I do freelance work doing jingles, melodies, lyrics and vocal tracks for adverts designed for the boob tube—in black and white of course— as well as the good old frequency modulation box —we have recently switched from AM radio frequencies to FM frequencies, so FM is a new phenomenon as well as a luxurious commodity here—and I am still baffled at the sound quality FM frequencies produce...AMAZING!
Kitsch Cat, which is a mini-label, is managed by me and a couple of friends who have the same interests and passion in music, art, fashion, graphics and design (www.kitschcat.com). Ever since the Kitsch Cat project has been established, I’ve been veering towards a lot of French-electro with 80s old school flavors. The ever popular polyester spandex shorts, Velcro, Rubik’s cubes, pet rocks and calculator watches are my means of inspiration—all deriving from a time when over indulgent Coke heads would roam the streets before heroin took over and turned the 90s into an imaginary soft pillowy cushion.
On the most part, whenever free time becomes accessible, in an era where power lunches, fast food, MSG and preservatives have become the primary means of sustenance; I try to utilize and invest each fraction of my spare time into music through caffeinated nights fueled on nicotine and chewing gum. Every now and then I toke a spliff or drop some blotter acid to enhance this mundane world that is ever so sweet. Whenever the mind becomes blocked and uninspired, I take comfort in origami folding, thumb wrestling, curling, sword swallowing, fire breathing, pogo stick hopping, and log throwing as constructive hobbies. Putting all that aside, I am attempting to breed the fastest sloth ever known to man kind.
oooooh,Again next week?? I heard to tar that you guys will do that today.but,plan was changed again,right? Super busy guys makes me serious.but,I'll wait for good news. I wish hurry up for making plan. CheerS!
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