Biography
From the 1990s forward, Buffalo Daughter maintained an inventive presence within Japanese music. Although linked to the Shibuya-kei movement at the height of its popularity during the band’s emergence, their lively blend of funk, dub, no wave, electronic music, and noise proved more wide-ranging and explicitly experimental, drawing from precedents set by Neu! and Kraftwerk. The group’s boundary-crossing approach first gained worldwide attention via the 1996 EP compilation Captain Vapour Athletes, issued by Grand Royal, the forward-looking imprint run by the Beastie Boys. Thereafter the trio explored contrasting facets of its sound, sharpening its crisp motorik pulses on 1998’s New Rock while incorporating orchestral and acoustic elements into 2002’s I. Although releases tapered during the 2010s, Buffalo Daughter demonstrated continued creative restlessness through 2010’s hip-hop-inflected The Weapons of Math Destruction and 2021’s energetic, politically charged We Are the Times.
Before Buffalo Daughter existed, guitarist/vocalist SuGar Yoshinaga and bassist/vocalist Yumiko Ohno belonged to Havana Exotica. The ensemble, which delivered an electronically augmented fusion of dub and funk, issued two albums on the Japanese indie label MIDI: 1991’s Yann Tomita-produced Odotte Bakari No Kun and the following year’s Hello! Martian!, produced by Pizzicato Five’s Yasuharu Konishi. Once Havana Exotica dissolved, Yoshinaga, Ohno, and turntablist/graphic designer MoOog Yamamoto established Buffalo Daughter in 1993, selecting the name for its connotations of power and the project’s all-female membership. The trio broadened Havana Exotica’s varied approach by merging analog synth experiments with sampling and mixing. Buffalo Daughter’s first EP, Shaggy Head Dressers, surfaced on Japan’s Cardinal Records in 1994; a second EP, Amoebae Sound System, followed on the same label in 1995. That year Luscious Jackson encountered Buffalo Daughter during a Japanese tour and forwarded copies of the EPs to Grand Royal, the label founded by Beastie Boys’ Mike D.
Buffalo Daughter promptly secured a contract with Grand Royal and debuted with the 1996 7" Legend of the Yellow Buffalo. Later the same year the collection Captain Vapour Athletes assembled the band’s earlier EPs. The 1997 EP Socks, Drugs, and Rock and Roll preceded the March 1998 full-length New Rock. Captured on a digital multi-track recorder rather than the analog tapes employed for prior material, the album displayed a more polished texture and climbed to number 77 on Japan’s Oricon albums chart. Also in 1998 the trio joined Delaware on the soundtrack for the video game Jungle Park. The remix EP WXBD, featuring contributions from Cornelius, Nardone, and Kut Masta Kurt, appeared in 1999, yet before Buffalo Daughter could prepare another album Grand Royal shuttered. The group relocated to Emperor Norton for February 2002’s I, which emphasized acoustic instrumentation and greater attention to lyrics. Later that year the Japan-only EP A Long Life Story of Miss Cro-Magnon gathered remixes and covers drawn from I. Buffalo Daughter tracked 2003’s Psychic EP in ten days; released solely in Japan, it reached number 68 on the domestic charts.
The band resurfaced with April 2006’s Euphorica, showcasing vocals from all three members. Buffalo Daughter teamed with Ami Suzuki on “O.K. Funky God,” a 2007 single also included on her album Connetta. After supplying a track to the soundtrack of the video game Katamari Forever in 2009, the trio delivered July 2010’s The Weapons of Math Destruction on its own Buffalo Ranch label. Highlighting the hip-hop leanings already present in its work, the album rose to number 90 on the Oricon chart. In 2013 Buffalo Daughter marked its twentieth anniversary with ReDiscoVer, a curated anthology containing remixes, live recordings, previously unreleased material, and appearances by friends such as Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and Cornelius’ Keigo Oyamada. For July 2014’s Konjac-tion—prompted by a performance at the exhibition of artist Peter McDonald’s work at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa—the band enlisted Kahimi Karie and Shintaro Sakamoto among others.
In 2021 Buffalo Daughter reemerged after a seven-year hiatus with a remastered edition of A Long Life Story of Miss Cro-Magnon alongside a new album. Arising from improvised sessions with Masaya Nakahara of Violent Onsen Geisha and Hair Stylistics, September 2021’s We Are the Times fused the group’s playful approach with commentary on global conditions in the 2020s.
Before Buffalo Daughter existed, guitarist/vocalist SuGar Yoshinaga and bassist/vocalist Yumiko Ohno belonged to Havana Exotica. The ensemble, which delivered an electronically augmented fusion of dub and funk, issued two albums on the Japanese indie label MIDI: 1991’s Yann Tomita-produced Odotte Bakari No Kun and the following year’s Hello! Martian!, produced by Pizzicato Five’s Yasuharu Konishi. Once Havana Exotica dissolved, Yoshinaga, Ohno, and turntablist/graphic designer MoOog Yamamoto established Buffalo Daughter in 1993, selecting the name for its connotations of power and the project’s all-female membership. The trio broadened Havana Exotica’s varied approach by merging analog synth experiments with sampling and mixing. Buffalo Daughter’s first EP, Shaggy Head Dressers, surfaced on Japan’s Cardinal Records in 1994; a second EP, Amoebae Sound System, followed on the same label in 1995. That year Luscious Jackson encountered Buffalo Daughter during a Japanese tour and forwarded copies of the EPs to Grand Royal, the label founded by Beastie Boys’ Mike D.
Buffalo Daughter promptly secured a contract with Grand Royal and debuted with the 1996 7" Legend of the Yellow Buffalo. Later the same year the collection Captain Vapour Athletes assembled the band’s earlier EPs. The 1997 EP Socks, Drugs, and Rock and Roll preceded the March 1998 full-length New Rock. Captured on a digital multi-track recorder rather than the analog tapes employed for prior material, the album displayed a more polished texture and climbed to number 77 on Japan’s Oricon albums chart. Also in 1998 the trio joined Delaware on the soundtrack for the video game Jungle Park. The remix EP WXBD, featuring contributions from Cornelius, Nardone, and Kut Masta Kurt, appeared in 1999, yet before Buffalo Daughter could prepare another album Grand Royal shuttered. The group relocated to Emperor Norton for February 2002’s I, which emphasized acoustic instrumentation and greater attention to lyrics. Later that year the Japan-only EP A Long Life Story of Miss Cro-Magnon gathered remixes and covers drawn from I. Buffalo Daughter tracked 2003’s Psychic EP in ten days; released solely in Japan, it reached number 68 on the domestic charts.
The band resurfaced with April 2006’s Euphorica, showcasing vocals from all three members. Buffalo Daughter teamed with Ami Suzuki on “O.K. Funky God,” a 2007 single also included on her album Connetta. After supplying a track to the soundtrack of the video game Katamari Forever in 2009, the trio delivered July 2010’s The Weapons of Math Destruction on its own Buffalo Ranch label. Highlighting the hip-hop leanings already present in its work, the album rose to number 90 on the Oricon chart. In 2013 Buffalo Daughter marked its twentieth anniversary with ReDiscoVer, a curated anthology containing remixes, live recordings, previously unreleased material, and appearances by friends such as Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and Cornelius’ Keigo Oyamada. For July 2014’s Konjac-tion—prompted by a performance at the exhibition of artist Peter McDonald’s work at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa—the band enlisted Kahimi Karie and Shintaro Sakamoto among others.
In 2021 Buffalo Daughter reemerged after a seven-year hiatus with a remastered edition of A Long Life Story of Miss Cro-Magnon alongside a new album. Arising from improvised sessions with Masaya Nakahara of Violent Onsen Geisha and Hair Stylistics, September 2021’s We Are the Times fused the group’s playful approach with commentary on global conditions in the 2020s.
Albums
Konjac-Tion
2014
Rediscover. Best, Re-Recordings and Remixes of Buffalo Daughter
2013
I (2022 Remastered)
2002
New Rock (2022 Remastered)
1998
Captain Vapour Athletes
1996
Singles
