Miho Hatori
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist Template:Nihongo is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and musician.<ref name="2021 Bandcamp Feature">Template:Cite web</ref> She is best known as a solo artist,<ref name="2020 Mixmag Profile">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="2018 FACT Feature">Template:Cite web</ref> co-founder of New York City band Cibo Matto,<ref name="Ankeny">Template:Cite web</ref> and as the first person to provide the voice of Noodle in the virtual band Gorillaz,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as for her work with the Beastie Boys,<ref name="2018 Billboard">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Handsome Boy Modeling School,<ref name="Rolling Stone Greatest Hip-Hop">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Smokey Hormel,<ref name="LA Times Smokey & Miho">Template:Cite web</ref> John Zorn,<ref name="2021 Bandcamp Feature" /> and many more.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Biography
Hatori expressed an early interest in music while growing up in Japan. She worked at used record shop Flash Disc Ranch in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, where she was exposed to many styles of music and sometimes performed as a club DJ.<ref name="2020 Mixmag Profile" /> Her earliest history in a music project dates to 1991 when she joined hip hop group Kimidori; she left the group in 1992.
Hatori moved to New York City in 1993 to study art; she quickly met Yuka Honda through performing together in punk/noise band Laito Lychee,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="LA Phil Bio">Template:Cite web</ref> a project that featured Hatori on vocals and violin played through distortion effects pedals.<ref name="2007 Chron">Template:Cite web</ref> Hatori and Honda co-founded Cibo Matto in 1994<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and released their debut album Viva! La Woman in 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The duo formation expanded to include Sean Lennon and Timo Ellis on 1997's Super Relax EP,<ref name="LA Phil Bio"/> and "unofficial" fifth member Duma Love appeared on their second full-length, 1999's Stereo ★ Type A.<ref name="1999 MTV">Template:Cite web</ref> Cibo Matto broke up in 2001, but came back with a reunion tour in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> They released a third and final follow-up album Hotel Valentine on February 14, 2014.<ref name="2014 Pitchfork">Template:Cite web</ref>
Hatori worked with her Cibo Matto collaborators outside of the band, contributing to Sean Lennon's solo album Into the Sun, as well as to his scores for the independent films Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Alter Egos;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> she also appears on Yuka Honda's solo album Eucademix.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
While Cibo Matto was touring with Beck, Hatori and Beck guitarist Smokey Hormel discovered a shared love of bossa nova and samba, which eventually resulted in their Brazilian-styled musical project Smokey & Miho.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other artists Hatori has worked with include Handsome Boy Modeling School (on the album So... How's Your Girl?),<ref name="Rolling Stone Greatest Hip-Hop" /> DJ Towa Tei,<ref name="2021 Bomb Interview" /> Stephin Merritt's The 6ths,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Baldwin Brothers,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Beastie Boys,<ref name="2018 Billboard" /> Blackalicious,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Peter Daily, Greg Kurstin,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Forró in the Dark, John Zorn, The Incredible Moses Leroy,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Patrick Higgins.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Miho performs solo under her own name and various monikers.<ref name="2018 FACT Feature" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her first solo album, Ecdysis, was released in Japan in 2005, coming two years later to the American and European markets.<ref name="2007 Pitchfork">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2018, she released Amazon To LeFrak as New Optimism and Sequence as Miss Information.<ref name="2018 Pitchfork">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Her 2021 release, Between Isekai and Slice of Life, was inspired by both Édouard Glissant and isekai and slice of life anime––specifically in Demon Slayer, which she watched in 2020 during New York City's COVID-19 stay-at-home order.<ref name="2021 Bomb Interview">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="2021 Tokion Interview">Template:Cite web</ref>
Discography
As leader/co-leader
| Release year | Artist | Title | Label | Personnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Cibo Matto | Cibo Matto | El Diablo Records | Miho Hatori & Yuka Honda |
| 1996 | Cibo Matto | Viva! La Woman | Warner Bros. | Hatori & Honda Template:Small |
| 1996 | Butter 08 | Butter | Grand Royal | Hatori, Honda, Russell Simins, Rick Lee, Mike Mills Template:Small |
| 1997 | Cibo Matto | Super Relax (EP) | Warner Bros. | Hatori, Honda, Sean Lennon, Timo Ellis |
| 1999 | Cibo Matto | Stereo ★ Type A | Warner Bros. | Hatori, Honda, Lennon, Ellis Template:Small |
| 2003 | Smokey & Miho | The Two EPs | Varèse Sarabande | Hatori & Smokey Hormel Template:Small |
| 2005 | Miho Hatori | Ecdysis | Rykodisc | Hatori Template:Small |
| 2007 | Cibo Matto | Pom Pom: The Essential Cibo Matto | Warner/Rhino/Atlantic | Hatori & Honda |
| 2014 | Cibo Matto | Hotel Valentine | Chimera Music | Hatori & Honda Template:Small |
| 2018 | New Optimism | Amazon To LeFrak<ref name="2018 Pitchfork"/> | Phantom Limb | Hatori |
| 2018 | Miss Information | Sequence | Pioneer Works Press | Hatori |
| 2021 | Miho Hatori | Between Isekai and Slice of Life<ref name="2021 Bandcamp Feature" /> | Virgin Music Label & Artist Services | Hatori Template:Small |
- Singles
- "Night Light" from the Ninja Tune album Urban Renewal Program (2002)
- "Baracuda" (2006)
- "Formula X" (2020)
- With Gorillaz (as Noodle)
- Tomorrow Comes Today EP (EMI, 2000)
- Gorillaz (Parlophone/Virgin, 2001)
- G-Sides (Parlophone, 2001)
- Spacemonkeyz vs Gorillaz, Laika Come Home (2002)
- Guest appearances
- Beastie Boys' "I Don't Know" (Hello Nasty, 1998)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Beastie Boys' "Hail Sagan" (the Intergalactic EP, 1998)
- Sean Lennon's "Into the Sun" (Into the Sun, 1998)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- John Zorn's Taboo & Exile (1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Spoken word for Handsome Boy Modeling School's "Metaphysical (A Good Day)" (So... How's Your Girl?, 1999)<ref name="Rolling Stone Greatest Hip-Hop" />
- Zorn's The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone (15th Anniversary Edition) (2000)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The 6ths' "Lindy Lou" (Hyacinths and Thistles, 1999)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Atami's "August" and "赤い砂漠 (Hypno Ver.)" (Atami, 2001)
- The Baldwin Brothers' "Dream Girl" (Cooking with Lasers, 2002)
- Yuka Honda's Eucademix (2004)
- Towa Tei's "Teenage Mutants" (Sunny, 2011)
- Rap (as New Optimism) on Maika Loubté's "Snappp" (2019)
- Remixes & Covers
- Rising Mixes: Ima / Yoko Ono remixed by Cibo Matto, Ween, Tricky, Thurston Moore (1996)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Cibo Matto covered "Je t'aime... moi non plus" for Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg (1997)
- "Start" (with the Beastie Boys) for Fire & Skill: The Songs of the Jam (1999)
- Soundtracks
- "Ocean in Your Eyes" for the soundtrack to Y tu mamá también (2001)
- "Desire" for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009)
- "Fridge Walks" for Alter Egos (2012)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Film works
- Shindo (Japanese film)
- The Killing of a Chinese Cookie
- xXx: AForbidden Love Story (Diesel's short film by Alexi Tan)