Frank Chickens

The duo Frank Chickens pairs vocalist Kazuko Hohki with Kazumi Taguchi, balancing opposing worlds in their work. Though born in Japan and now based in London, the pair honors classical Japanese traditions while simultaneously celebrating low-budget monster films. Their lyrics alternate between sharp feminist critiques of Western stereotypes of Japanese women and gleeful, over-the-top absurdity pursued for its own sake. The two first connected in 1978 through the Japanese-American Toy Theatre, a troupe that staged classic plays and stories with toy robots, action figures, and Godzilla dolls. Exposure from a BBC radio broadcast helped them move into recording, and their debut album, We Are Frank Chickens, appeared in 1984. The record included the minor hit “Blue Canary” and was produced by Steve Beresford and David Toop, both of whom also assisted with songwriting; the resulting sound fused synth-pop, funk, jazz, dance, and traditional Japanese music. After Taguchi exited, the Kaz label released the compilation Best of Frank Chickens, which assembled highlights from earlier albums together with early non-LP singles. Hohki then teamed with Atsuko Kamura for the more explicitly political Get Chickenized in 1987 and returned two years later with the equally strange Club Monkey. Between projects, Hohki helped introduce karaoke to Great Britain via her BBC television series The Karaoke Klub, while she and Frank Chickens continued performing at clubs and theaters into the 1990s.