NeoKitsch

You are invited to listen to a new piece from the Sawaii-Fi genre: “Lost in Translation”. The music was improvised on a detuned violin, a ukulele, the Theremin, Slide Guitar, the casio SK1 sampling keyboard, and it also includes vocal performances and a seagull.

Please click on the media player below:

Among the many entries on the NeoKitsch blog, you may stumble upon an odd genre called Sawaii-Fi. Here is a brief description of what you might expect from a NeoKitsch Sawaii-Fi project.

What is Sawaii-Fi?

Sawaii-Fi is where Hawaiian and Science Fiction music meet, and it is used in many other art forms as well. It is a fusion genre, which takes its influences predominantly, although not limited to, music and films from the mid twentieth century. The ideals and wonders of Hawaii and the hula girls during its franchised frenzy bring the element of paradise to its many mediums. The fears and mysteries of Science Fiction during the ‘Red Scare’ frenzy bring horror to its mediums.

Sawaii-Fi’s origins.

The musical style of Sawaii-Fi evolved from linking the not too dissimilar glissando way of performing its instruments: the Slide Guitar and the Theremin. Its musical form was the starting point for the genre, although early forms of Sawaii-Fi have been known to exist. From then on, music, film, art and writing became popular methods of expressing the marriage of two victims of spoof, out dated genres.

Sawaii-Fi in story form.

In terms of story telling, Sawaii-Fi tends to battle between two divergent themes: paradise under threat from tyrannical outsiders, (Hawaii invaded by extraterrestrial life) or oppressive invaders reformed through the seductive lure of paradise (extraterrestrial monsters co-exist harmoniously with local villagers).

Sawaii-Fi’s influences.

The most successful attempts at this genre are influenced by the more lowbrow variety of its predecessors. Since mainstream cinema’s recent surge of ‘remakes’ and genre rehashes, Sawaii-Fi fell into the neo-kitsch subculture with ease.