Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi

Infobox musical artist
Name = Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi

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Img_capt = photograph - Janine Storm van Leeuwen
Background = Producer / Performer
Birth_name =
Alias =
Born =
Died =
Origin = Brighton, UK flagicon|UK
Instrument = Samples, Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar
Genre = Hip-Hop, Electronica, Folk
Occupation =
Years_active = 2002 - present
Label = Nefisa UK
Associated_acts =
URL = http://www.nefisa.co.uk
Notable_instruments =

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi (Born in Brighton, UK) is a multimedia artist and founder of the arts website "Nefisa", which also doubles as an independent media label- Nefisa UK. He is known primarily through his music. Since 2004 he has released two LPs, two documentaries and one novel, as well as appearing on many songs as a guest MC or producer. Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi has been featured in national and international magazines like The WIRE, Hip-Hop Connection, Stylus, Punk Planet, EMEL Naked Punch Review and others. Upon publishing his debut novel in June 2007, Misdaq was also featured on television on the BBC programme South East Today and also gave an interview to BBC Southern Counties Radio.

Origins

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi was born and raised in Brighton on the south coast of England. His father, Dr. Nabi Misdaq, is an eminent scholar and author on the social and political history of Afghanistan and was also head of the BBC World Service Pashto Section - which he founded - for a decade in the 1990s. His mother, Arian Misdaq, also an Afghan, is a pscyho-analyst specializing in multi-cultural counseling, working with CMHS.

In 2002 he began Nefisa, an arts website featuring frequent updates and comment on creative, spiritual and political topics by Misdaq. It also features many other artists who are chosen by Misdaq in order to give them, "Better exposure." Misdaq also frequently uses the website to comment upon immediate issues such as the Iraq War, the 7/7|bombings of London and the Danish cartoon controversy - for which Misdaq wrote a combined [http://www.nefisa.co.uk/Redouan.htm|short-story and article] which was spread widely across the internet in the days following the initial reaction.

Music

* "From a Western Box" (March 5th 2004, CD)

His music debut, 'From a Western Box' (released on Nefisa UK) is described as political hip-hop fused with electronica and was relatively well-received by the underground press.

It was described by Punk Planet as,

"An effortless combination of electronica, hip-hop & the stylised mood of ambient...Yoshi lays down tight tracks with smart vocal infusions and political narratives." (Sep/Oct issue #63)."

[http://www.ukhh.com/ UK Hip-Hop] also reviewed the album, claiming it was,

"What hip-hop always was about, appropriating and re-interpreting the heritage of the old-school."

Finally, Stylus Magazine,

"Yoshi comes from a world where Sergio Leone, the RZA, anti-establishment politics, Middle Eastern strife, ambient Hip Hop, Akira Kurosawa and potent skunk exist in harmony...Managing to sound both ominous and chilled at the same time, this is obviously a deeply personal record about skewed perspectives, about looking at the UK from it’s marginal areas and wondering whether you’re a part of it." (Nick Southall)

* "Flowers & Trees" (May 17th 2005, CD)

Second release 'Flowers & Trees' (also released on Nefisa UK) was considerably more positive and also slightly more traditional in terms of the hip-hop tracks featured. Just like his debut, 'Flowers & Trees' also contained an almost equal-split between instrumental songs and vocal ones. This album was also notorious for being marketed with a free piece of nature inside the CD-case, which online customers could choose from (such choices as white-flowers, cherry-blossoms, grass and even oxygen were available).

The WIRE Magazine said that Yoshi's,

"Art, as well as his heart, is in the right place."

Whilst also praising his

"Lateral sound leaps and abrupt left-turns."

Hip-Hop Connection's Adam Anonymous, gave 'Flowers & Trees' 4 out of 5 Stars, beating off competition from the likes of Snoop Dog with the highest rating that month.

"Brighton-born Yoshi is a real one-man DIY operation, thankfully without ever compromising quality... Marrying DJ Shadow's aural patchwork approach with Danger Mouse's disregard for sample chiefing, Yoshi is patently enjoying complete freedom of sound... Beautiful."

Yoshi played the album tracks live on many occasions, playing in Brighton at the Pav Tav, Engine Rooms, Enigma, London in Richmond, and the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham amongst others. The title track was also played on national radio through the BBC's 1xtra station in June 2005.

Collaborations & B-Sides

In 2004 Yoshi remixed a song by DJ Shadow, "Blood on the Motorway (No More Bush-Fires - The Life Remix)". According to the press-release of his debut album, this remains one of the more popular downloads on the official Solesides website, which features the song.

First and foremost have been his collaborations with Afghan-American Producer/MC Diamondscepter, who lent a beat and lyrics to Yoshi's debut, and also produced a track on 'Flowers & Trees', co-producing the title track. Since 2001 they have had an [http://www.geocities.com/thelatinroom online fan-page] purportedly run by NBA basketball coach Jeff Van Gundy, who is a huge fan of their work as a duo.

Yoshi has worked on much of his more left-field music with Mikrosopht. On Mikrosopht's net-label [http://godxiliary.com/ Godxiliary] , Yoshi contributed his lyrics and spoken-word vocals to the album [http://godxiliary.com/01.htm C-WILD] (which was in turn re-used and remixed on Atom™'s recent LP 'Son of a Glitch'). Mikrosopht & Yoshi also released a duet-album in June 2007 called Dual Mule, on the Godxiliary imprint, which has the subtitle, 'experiments in improvisational sound'. Yoshi also appeared with Mikrosopht, and fellow producer/friend MichL Bridge, on a Beatles mash-up album entitled, ' [http://www.fredoviola.com/Pepper.html Hippocamp Ruins Sgt. Peppers] ' Victrola is a producer known primarily for his work in the Illinois Hip-Hop duo [http://www.manarepublic.com/ Mana Republic] and has worked with Yoshi on various tracks. The only releases thus far have been the Victrola produced track on, ' [http://www.discogs.com/release/472973 The Hearing] ' (on which Yoshi raps) and Victrola's first solo EP, ' [http://www.hippocamp.net/releases/hc167.htm Flores, Nubes y Parajitos] ' on which Yoshi raps on the track, "SubwayFN". On this track, Yoshi is said to be assuming the personality of a flower, whilst fellow MC J-Shillz personifies a cloud. This EP was released on [http://www.hippocamp.net/ Hippocamp] .

Yoshi also wrote a chorus which was sung by two-members of the Pipettes (Becki & former member Julia) for his Flowers & Trees song, "When U See The Future".

Film-Making

* "Soup for Thought" (2005)

A short-documentary by Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, S. Windericxx & N. Karlsson, about a soup-kitchen providing for the homeless people of Brighton. This documentary was selected for a special screening at the [http://www.seefestival.org/2005/programme_lo_res.pdf/ 2005 Brighton Film-Festival] in the Duke of York's Picture House.

* "Let the clouds of America burn Calligraphy onto my Frozen Heart" (2007)

A 15-minute documentary, filmed directed and edited by Y.Misdaq depicts the mental struggle of an artist in the midst of a creative block. It was first screened at Royal Holloway University of London in March 2007.

Writing

* "Pieces of a paki" (2007). Nefisa UK/University of Sussex press. ISBN 978-0955502408

'Pieces of a paki' is the debut novel of Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi and is being published under his real name, Yusuf Misdaq, by Nefisa UK in association with the University of Sussex press. It is set in a near-future Britain and was featured briefly in the March edition of EMEL Magazine It is listed on [http://www.amazon.co.uk/ Amazon] as being, "A coming-of-age and Utopian/Dystopian novel rolled into one."

In November 2006 he also performed three poems at a "poetry sama" in the Gielgud theatre at London's prestigious RADA.

Misdaq is also known to favor journalistic writing and has expressed an admiration for Robert Fisk and Amy Goodman amongst others on his arts website, nefisa. He also conducted a lengthy interview with record-label owner and illbient dub musician Skiz Fernando (of Wordsound recordings) in 2003, which is also featured on Nefisa.

Misdaq has named experimental writer Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite and poet Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore as personal friends in the literary-world. Moore has quoted comments by Misdaq on the back of two of his most recent books 'Abdallah Jones & the Disappearing-Dust Caper' and 'Underwater Galaxies'. Misdaq has also written literary reviews for Moore's numerous works, appearing in such magazines as Illume, EMEL & online with the DeenPort website.

References

* Magazines

"Punk Planet" - issue 63, September/October 2004

"Hip-Hop Connection" - issue 191, July 2005

"The Wire" - issue 258, August 2005

"The Brighton Source" - issue 83, October 2005

"New Currents Brighton" - issue 21, January 2007

"Illume Magazine" - issue 4, January 2007

"Emel Magazine" - issue 30, March 2007

* Books

"Pieces of a paki" - Yusuf Misdaq (2007). Nefisa UK/University of Sussex press. ISBN 978-0955502408

"Abdallah Jones & the Disappearing-Dust Caper" - Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore (2006). The Ecstatic Exchange/Crescent Series. ISBN 978-0615135700

"Underwater Galaxies" - Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore (2007). The Ecstatic Exchange. ISBN 978-0615145051

* Television

"BBC South-East Today" - feature on Y.Misdaq by Keir Richardson, BBC 1, August 2007.

* Radio

"BBC Southern Counties Radio" - interview with Sarah Gorrell, August 2007.

External links

* [http://www.ymisdaq.net/ Official site]
* [http://www.nefisa.co.uk/ Nefisa]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/southerncounties/content/articles/2007/08/22/l_is_for_loving_it_feature.shtml Real Audio Interview on BBC]
* [http://www.ukhh.com/features/interviews/yoshi/index.html UKHH Interview]
* [http://www.nefisa.co.uk/flowersinterview.htm Freelance Interview]
* [http://www.discogs.com/artist/Yoshi Discogs]
* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0955502403 Amazon.co.uk]