Beauty & The Beats | John Lillis calls long distance to talk to LA’s first lady of twisted beats, TOKiMONSTA before she lands in Limerick

On the day of this interview, LA’s TOKiMONSTA’s inbox holds a mail stating she’s just been selected as one of the participants for the 2010 Red Bull Music Academy.  A big whopper of a deal for any musician on any level, the acceptance is akin to finding one of those all too rare golden tickets that line the inside of Wonka bar.  So she’s in good spirits.  “I’m boogie-ing around my house to ‘Get Down Tonight’, I think that means I’m pretty excited.”

She shouldn’t really be that surprised to have been selected.  TOKiMONSTA (Toki means rabbit in Korean, MONSTA…well, I guess thats just short for monster) ain’t your average beat-producer, given that most beat-producers generally slide into the category of weeded males with poor social skills who think dancing is nodding one’s head in syncopation with the music. Nope, she definitely doesn’t fit that bill.  Instead, TOKiMONSTA comes from a classical pianist background that’s been warped and molded by the smouldering hiphop and electronic sounds emanating from the Los Angeles underground.

Surrounded by such heavyweights in the scene as Ras G and Mono/Poly, she’s managed to carve her own distinctive take on contemporary hiphop production – retaining that all important rolling bass but sprinkling some essential feminine touches on top to keep it fresh and accessible.  Since her introduction to the beat community, things have blossomed nicely – with releases on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label and international airplay from everyone from Giles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs and, of course, Peter Curtin of Spin South West.  She’s also had the honour of being invited to rock spots and slots at the Low End Theory, the LA club that’s become an instituition in pushing glitched-out cutting-edge music.  But she’s taken it all in her stride - no big deal, like.  “I think people expect Low End Theory to be some grand Ibiza-esque club, but its really a humble and a very comfortable place.  You don’t hear our music blasting from every radio-station, but we, the musicians, are everywhere.  I mean you can be hanging out drinking a beer and your favourite producer is there just drinking a beer right beside you – on a weekly basis.”

Despite her extensive piano training, her allegiance is firmly with the beats these days.  The classical music education might have given her the basis for a career in music, but she states that it was discovering jazz genius/nutjob Sun Ra for the first time and his freeform approach towards composition that really struck a chord with the young TOKi.  And given Mr. Ra’s well-documented obsession with everything cosmic, it’s not too surprising to hear that the lady shares a similar penchant for “astro-vandalism”. She admits that her space fascination even has her roaming through Youtube in search of any fresh 2012 ‘the end is nigh’ material. “I have to admit the lore and theories really pull you in, but I’m definitely not going to be stocking up on cup noodles and bottled water like some phony y2k nonsense – maybe that was just an American hype thing.  I do think I’ve watched every documentary out there on 2012 though.”

This November sees the first lady of Brainfeeder teleporting around Europe for the first time, and Limerick will be one of the many destinations that gets the chance to wrap its collective ears around the contemporary electronic sounds she’s been crafting in her lab. Asked to predict what a night in the city may entail for her, her answer is pretty succint and to the point.  “Well, I’m hoping that people are up for hearing some fresh beats.  I expect a lot of beer/liquor drinking, past experiences with Irish homies tell me it’s not wrong of me to assume that.  All good though, I can hang with the best of ‘em (dusts dirt off shoulder).”  Lets put her to the test.

In conjunction with the peeps from Cheebah and Kerrynini, TOKiMONSTA plays a live laptop set at the Cuckoo Box on Saturday November 21^st.

Admission is a sweet nowt, and Deviant, Peter Curtin and jOhnny dOObs will all be standing by ready to drop musical bombs throughout the night. For more, check out www.myspace.com/tokibeats