• Intro Bonito by Kero Kero Bonito, released 24 August 2014 1. Kero Kero Bonito 7. Babies (Are so Strange) 8.
• Intro Bonito is Kero Kero Bonito’s debut mixtape. It was self-released on Bandcamp in July 2013 with an accompanying youtube video for “Homework” and then re-released under Denim record in August.

1. Kero Kero Bonito Intro Bonito Flac Rutracker
2. Kero Kero Bonito Intro Bonito Torrent

When asked about what “Kero Kero Bonito” means during Indonesia Morning Show, Sarah replied with It means a lot of things in different languages but, ‘Kero Kero’ is an onomatopoeia for the sound a. Kero Kero Bonito are a new London trio, and their whole aesthetic mixes polyglot hip-hop - vocalist Sarah raps in Japanese and English - with sunnily maximalist dance music and sugary pop, like a Tumblr-era Cibo Matto. Intro Bonito is Kero Kero Bonito ’s debut mixtape. It was self-released on Bandcamp in July 2013 with an accompanying youtube video for “Homework” and then re-released under Denim Records in August 2014.

We met when Sarah responded to Gus and Jamie’s advert for a rapper on MixB, a bulletin board for Japanese expats in London. Sarah raps about homework, parties and crocodiles, and treats English and Japanese as one language. Gus and Jamie sit around looking pretty.

Intro Bonito, our debut mixtape, came out in August 2014 on Double Denim. It features hits like “Sick Beat” (gamer girl power rap bass) and “Kero Kero Bonito” (reggaeton self-advertisement). We also released a remix EP, Bonito Recycling, appeared on Secret Songs’ compilation shh#ffb6c1 and self- released our last single, “Build It Up”.

The Guardian, Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly have been kind enough to write about us. You might have even heard Phil Taggart playing “Build It Up” on Radio 1 or Sarah being interviewed on J-WAVE.

This year, we’re working on our biggest project yet and bringing our show to a stage near you.

Everyone can come!

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Kero Kero Bonito Intro Bonito Flac Rutracker

Saccharine? Quirky? Underwritten? Empty? Innocent? Reliant on video game references? Lacking substance? In the legendary words of Jay-Z: Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?

Kero Kero Bonito Intro Bonito Torrent

Intro Bonito presents itself opposite to what it truly is: Sarah Bonito’s songwriting is exceptionally poignant, carrying an anxious undercurrent in spite of her simplistic vocabulary, backed by Gus and Jamie’s deceptively saccharine pico-pop production fueled by retro game samples and KK sliders. Kero Kero Bonito’s soundscapes are that of naivety serving as rejection from growing up in a scary world. The Japanese would call Sarah’s societal dissociation ‘denpa‘, compounded by the music’s fantastical strangeness to outsiders. Much of the current internet generation have, ironically, grown disconnected from what society declares reality, and exactly in that anxiety does Kero Kero Bonito thrive. ‘I’d Rather Sleep‘ summarizes Intro Bonito best; falling in a depression because you’re incapable of keeping up with the world around you, struggling to retain the imaginative, innocent happiness of being a child (“Trees used to talk to me / Now I know what’s real and what’s fake“). The weight of adulthood suffocates Sarah, struggling to cope with the societal expectation that she should become a mother just because she is a woman on ‘Babies (Are so Strange)‘; the homogenization of students through rigid school systems that discourages creativity (‘Homework‘); deforestation and nature’s increasing artificiality caused by industrialization in the most bittersweet third verse ever on ‘Let’s Go To the Forest‘ (“Oh wait, the forest got demolished / When they built the airport years ago / But we can still go see the ocean / Cause they put it in a bowl at the mall“).

Although monotone, Sarah’s sympathy lends itself through her recital of many relatable anecdotes examining how anxiety manifests itself at a young age: her dissociation had always been present as she would rather watch ‘cool’ kids reach the top instead of climbing the frame herself (‘Park Song‘), and was alienated from her claustrophobic and tiny home place just because she looked different, causing a strong desire to fly away (‘Small Town‘).

However, Intro Bonito isn’t merely skepticism and bittersweet disappointment hidden behind cutesy drawings against pink backgrounds: it introduces itself with bombastic fanfare on the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu-reminiscent title track, takes agency into its own hands defying social expectations on the gimmicky ‘Sick Beat‘, and despite its tingly sad ending, ‘Pocket Crocodile‘ optimistically cherishes the memories of love and happiness from something as ‘odd’ as a crocodile, rather than to sob about them.

Intro Bonito encourages catharsis by celebrating unity amongst diversity, notably with its high point of ‘My Party‘, sharing the common theme with the absent ‘Flamingo‘ that everybody is invited to the Kero Kero Bonito party. No matter your appearance or background, you too can join in on the fun! Although sonically alienating they are so appealing for they hold out their hand to carry you out of a rut. They acknowledge it is difficult but refuses to reject society, rather celebrating individualism and creativity in spite of rigid expectations. Very little fills my heart with more joy than Sarah and the boys finally spreading their wings to fly away from Kenilworth like they wished, so they could instill happiness in the hearts of those who need it around the world.