Tools
w/DJs Mug Frosty and AMS of FCS North, Supersoul
Mon Feb 17, Chop Suey, 8 pm $15 adv.
Though active in the Japanese hiphop scene during much of the '80s, DJ Krush didn't arrive on the global stage until the mid '90s, with his debut CD, Krush. Because the triphop label Shadow Records released the CD, Krush was immediately--and to some extent perm- anently--lumped with the whole European triphop movement. But in terms of history, training, and tactics, Krush has always been hiphop oriented. He doesn't mutate hiphop the way Tricky did, but either instrumentalizes it or makes actual hiphop, which is why, unlike most European triphop DJs, his encounters with American rappers--C.L. Smooth, Mos Def, Black Thought, to name a few--have been so successful.
DJ Krush's new CD, Shinsou "The Message at the Depth"--a hiphop masterpiece--is, as with his previous CDs, composed of instrumentals and tracks that feature English and Japanese rappers and singers. In mood and colors, Shinsou creates an atmosphere like the thinning twilight between the end of night and the start of day. It begins at a very dark point ("Trihedron") and gradually, track by track, moves toward the light, or even lightness. The very last track, "What About Tomorrow," which features religious reggae singer Abijah, marks the arrival of the first light, the initial rays of hope and possibility. This impression is substantiated by the fact that the guests who occupy the first half of the CD (Opus and Anti Pop Consortium, for example) are much heavier and darker than those who occupy the dawning, darkling second side of the CD (Angelina Esparza and Sly & Robbie, for example).
I recently had the following e-mail exchange with the great DJ Krush.
Am I wrong to think that the object of your hiphop is beauty? That your mixes and remixes, your cuts, and your beats all function to extract as much beauty as possible out of hiphop? Your music reminds me of something DJ Cam once said: "Hiphop is the most beautiful music in the world."
Yes, beauty is a theme for me. Making music is like drawing a picture--my instrumental tracks especially. I have control of the canvas, the paint, and thus the mood of the music. Collaborations are different. I provide the canvas and paint but the rapper or vocalist glides on the canvas and paints--but with my paint--and they bring their own sensibility/creativity to it.
Do you have an aesthetic? A particular way of thinking about hiphop? Its mechanics, structures, possibilities?
The groove. How I feel the groove is the only indicator for me.
In my opinion, your CD Strictly Turntablized stands as your ultimate science/sonic experiment and Kakusei as your most detailed (if not delicate) discourse on hiphop aesthetics or the limits of those aesthetics. Is this an accurate conception?
I think that is accurate. Strictly Turntablized was an experiment on how far I could take it. Kakusei was, on the other hand, an exercise in the stripped-down, barebones beat, and how bare I could make a track.
On your previous CD, Zen, the track "Candle Chant (A Tribute)" featured Boss MC's strange and beautiful Japanese flow. Were those awkward meters and accents intended, or is it just that the language is strange to my English ears? I ask this because the first Japanese rapper I heard you work with, MC Rino on the track "Shin-Sekai" (1997's Milight), struck me as accomplished but not in any way unusual, whereas Boss MC seemed very unusual.
That is Boss MC's style, the way he raps. On my new album, Shinsou "The Message at the Depth", I have a Japanese rapper called Inden, whose style is similar to MC Rino's. I just think about each rapper's style in relation to the beat, and then choose who will best fit that beat.
I have always wanted to know why the penultimate track with DJ Shadow on Meiso is called "Duality." What is it about your art or approach to hiphop that is opposite to DJ Shadow's?
I don't think we are necessarily opposite. We are just different. However, we haven't worked together for a while. I'd love to work with him again soon.
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