Dj Scotch Egg

Shigeru Ishihara aka DJ Scotch Egg is a boundary- breaking artist in the truest sense.

Originally from Tokyo, his obsession with noise and improvised music began when he picked up a guitar and started experimenting. By the early 2000s, he had discovered the underground music scene in Brighton, UK, where he exploded onto the stage, building a legion of dedicated followers who flocked to witness his energetic performances. Alongside, he created Wrong Music, a noise-oriented anything-goes event series with friends Henry Collins (aka Shitmat) and Matt (Roger Species). His artist moniker DJ Scotch Egg was conceived during those events, where he developed an intense performance style using multiple Nintendo Game Boys and a microphone, which later became known as breakcore.

Shige’s unpretentious magnetism drew countless music adventurers into his universe along the way, and helped broaden his range of expressions. Swapping his Game Boys for a bass guitar, he co-founded Drumeyes in 2007 with E-da of Boredoms, a fluid band project that focused heavily on live drums. The distinctive energy of the project caught the eye of fellow-Brightonian, Mark Clifford, leading to Shige joining reformed 90s shoegaze icons, Seefeel (Warp), in 2009.

Since moving to Berlin in 2011, the Scotch Egg sound has evolved to embrace hip hop, trap, and dub influences. He co-founded a record label Small But Hard, releasing a series of other projects including Devilman (with Taigen of Bo Ningen and Gorgonn) and DJ Scotch Bonnet & Sensational albums. In 2016, he also formed a dubbed-out pop duo project Waqwaq Kingdom (Jahtari, Phantom Limb) with Kiki Hitomi (King Midas Sound), further expanding his musical palette.

His most recent works include collaborations with Turkish MC Ethnique Punch (Epic Istanbul.), and Shanghai-based artist Gooooose (SVBKVLT). 2021 saw the release of his newest project, a kaleidoscopic album produced during his 2019 artist residency with Nyege Nyege Tapes in Kampala, Uganda. ‘TEWARI’ was released in May 2021 on Nyege Nyege Tapes sub-label Hakuna Kulala under his new Scotch Rolex alias