Shirokuma

Bio:

Hello ! This is both Mark's personal site and also the throne of SHIROKUMA. Shirokuma is a poppy and inventive indietronica project which has released one critically well received album "Secret Moves At The Midnight Chess Club" (on Faith & Hope Records in 2005) and a single "Moonlight In The Afternoon", which was blessed with Steve Lamacq's Single Of The Week on his BBC Radio 6 show in June 2005. Early demo CDs became regular faves of the BBC's legendary John Peel Show, and Shirokuma has also been remixed by atists like Max Tundra and Andy Votel. Shirokuma has also recorded a live radio session for London's XFM and contributed a track to a BBC Radio 1 One World special in tribute to John Lennon. Shirokuma runs frequent DJ nights in Manchester, UK and is available for all remixes, DJ sets, sessions, gigs and interviews.

Member Since:

February 09, 2006

Members:

A project of Liverpool born (August 1977), currently Manchester based musician and writer Mark Corrin, Shirokuma also records with a variety of international and local collaborators and is always enthusiastic for being involved with new recording experiments. I also record with STRIP PRAIRIE, POPE INNOCENT X, TULIP CRASH, BEAT SAFARI, PENGUIN MAP MIJINKO, and more. Some new recordings below...

Influences:

MUSIC: Tricky, Mice Parade, Can, Os Mutantes, Akiko Yano, Momus, Spacemen 3, Viv Stanshall & The Bonzo Dog Band, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Serge Gainsbourg, Frank Chickens, Alice Coltrane, Mu, The Plastics, New Order, The Ramones, Maki Nomiya & Pizzicato 5, Pink Lady, Moondog, Yoko Ono, Devandra Banhart, Saint Etienne, The Free Design, Mark Hollis & Talk Talk, Scott Walker, Betty Boo, Nagisa Ni Te, Max Tundra, CSS, After Dinner, Kevin Ayres, Luke Haines & Black Box Recorder, The Sugarcubes, Gogol Bordello, Throbbing Gristle, A Silver Mt. Zion, Melt Banana, Love, Incredible String Band, Merzbow, Julian Cope, Cornelius, Bomb The Bass, Ryuchi Sakamoto, The Boo Radleys, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sadistic Mika Band, Rei Harakami, Supercar, Yamasuki, Iron and Wine, Syd Barrett, Elliot Smith, Boards of Canada, Daniel Johnston, RZA, Prince, Crystal Castles, Genesis, Huggy Bear, Cornershop, Thin Lizzy, Michael Jackson, Susumu Yokota, Happy Mondays, Ivor Cutler, Electrelane, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Cocorosie, GG Allin & The Murder Junkies, Talking Heads, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Asa Chang & Junn Ray, Pavement, Sebadoh, Linlin Lanlan, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Beck, They Might Be Giants, Sketchshow, Peaches, MC Paul Barman, Guitar Wolf, Last Poets, Ikue Mori, Ween, Sly & The Family Stone, Michael Franti, Gangstarr, Pharoah Saunders, Funkadelic, Marvin Gaye, Le Tigre, Faust, Lali Puna, Pet Shop Boys, Mr Bungle, Dungen, John Cale, Laura Nyro, Denim, Lee Scratch Perry, Shonen Knife, Burning Spear, John Lee Hooker, Soft Cell, B52s, The Cure, Dead Kennedys, Dead Prez, Fishmans, Acid Mothers Temple, Parappa The Rapper, Vib Ribbon, YohChuSha, AC/DC, Big Black, Husker Du, Michael Nyman, Pink Floyd, Chris De Burgh, Animal Collective, Satanicpornocultshop, Misery Mizer, AFX, Suicide, The Pixies, Jesus & Mary Chain, Violent Femmes, The Candies, George, My Bloody Valentine, The Fall, mAKE uP, Tom Waits, Divine Comedy, Gokart Mozart, Gilberto Gil, Altern8, Shane Macgowan, Sex Pistols, Babyshambles, Sparks, Blackalicious, Guns N Roses, Manic Street Preachers, Humming Urban Stereo, Nick Drake, Kate Bush, Squarepusher, Denki Groove, Fleckfumie, Tom Tom Club, Halcali, Shampoo, Pulp, Aqua, Vengaboys, 2Unlimited, Right Said Fred. FILM : Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...and Spring, Wild Zero, Tale Of Tales, Jigoku, The Isle, Save The Green Planet, Dead Man's Shoes, Moju, Natural City, Silent Running, Oldboy, Visitor Q, Audition, The Proposition, Snake Of June, Equus, Naked, The Magdelane Sisters, The Holy Mountain, Lucifer Rising, The Wicker Man, Ju-on, Laputa : Castle In The Sky, Fighter In The Wind, Dolls, The Eye, Zipang, Lady Snowblood, Das Experiment, Suicide Circle, Naked Lunch, The Hunger, Fire Walk With Me, Salo, Crash, Hellraiser, 2046, Blade Runner, Sympathy For Mr Vengance, Tetsuo, 3 Extremes, The Devils, The Exorcist, Female Convict : Scorpion, Anatomie, American Psycho, Alien, Mr Vampire, Rumblefish, Walkabout, Barbarella, Withnail & I, 24 Hour Party People, Chronos, Clockwise, Monty Python's Holy Grail, Ichi The Killer, The Piano Teacher, Spirited Away, The Elephant Man. WRITERS : Herman Hesse, Yukio Mishima, Clive Barker, William Burroughs, Marcel Proust, Osamu Dasai, Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft, Allen Ginsberg, Anchee Min, Kathy Acker, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Franz Kafka, Octave Mirbeau, Kurt Vonnegut, Natsuo Kirino, Graham Greene, Philip Larkin, Cervantes, Stephen King, Poppy Z Brite, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Will Self, Tennesse Williams, Brett Easton Ellis, Arthur Conan Doyle, Albert Camus, Ramsay Campbell, Angela Carter, James Ellroy. COMPUTER GAMES : Prince Of Persia, Silent Hill, Parappa The Rapper, Clocktower, Flashback, Shadowrun, Chuckie Egg, Starglider, Deus Ex, Bible Buffet, My Life, My Love, Chibi Maruko Chan's Waku Waku Shopping, Shinobi, Beneath A Steel Sky, Head Over heels, Fairlight, Resident Evil, Blair Witch 1-3, Arkanoid, Famicom Detective Club, Apple Town Story, Super Metroid, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Egyptian Run, Hunter, Underworlde, Outrun, Manic Miner, Leisure Suit Larry, Llamatron, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Everybody's Golf, Super Sprint, Qix, Aquatic Games

Sounds Like:

New Order, Lali Puna, Crystal Castles, Cornelius, Sketchshow, Mice Parade, Can, Momus, The Bonzo Dog Band, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Serge Gainsbourg, Prince, Pet Shop Boys, Pizzicato 5, Sparks, Bomb The Bass, Tricky, Squarepusher, Denki Groove, Fleckfumie, Halcali, The Cure, Ladytron, Peaches. WHAT THE MUSIC PRESS SAY ABOUT SHIROKUMA.......... NME "... makes us want to have sex in dressing up clothes". Manchester Music “delivers a careful nod to some well referenced roots. Excellent… MMMM” The Guardian "Eccentric, Japanese tinged pop". City Life "The missing link between Stereolab and Cornelius". Manchester Music “…John Peel favourite Shirokuma performs material from forthcoming Secret Moves at the Midnight Chess Club album in unique fashion.” Gigwise "…Maverick genius." NME “…‘Manga Folktronica’…” Manchester Music “…Gentlemanly avant-garde...a distinctive take on electro-pop"

Record Label:

Valentine Records, Faith & Hope, None