DJ Krush Nov 21

(with DJ Suspence and K.O.)

at I-Spy, 10 pm,

$15 on

ticketweb.com

Two things happen when you fuseTAmerican hiphop and a Japanese sensibility. On one hand, you get someone like Zeebra, a popular Japanese rapper with an unfortunate street name. The name Zeebra lacks any street or urban connotations, like the Notorious B.I.G. or DMX, and of all the jungle animals he could have selected, the zebra seems the most awkward in image and behavior. It's a pathetic creature whose whole existence is marked by three tedious activities: eating grass, drinking water, and fleeing from big cats. Zeebra describes himself as "the rhyme animal"--but why not stress that designation with something more potent: a panther or tarantula or cobra?

That said, Zeebra has produced a fascinating and entertaining song called "Mirai e no kagi," which is made up of three distinctly different forms of popular music. The first and most general form is the rap, which is performed (I presume) by Zeebra himself. He throws down a few Japanese rhymes about having fun and getting down. Next, there's an angelic chorus by a woman who sounds exactly like Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins. During this ethereal break, the song drops the weights of the heavy bass and pounding beats and floats up into a melodic dream-mist that fills the open spaces with Gaelic mystery. The beautiful mist is then cleared by the thunderous roar of a Shabba Ranks-like toaster, who throws down a mini dance-hall tune in Japanese/Jamaican "stylee."

"Mirai e no kagi," is fascinating because it's misshapen, yet never collapses. It packs all this diverse stuff into one small pop container that never breaks or spills. Though the song is as weird and beautiful as a strange sea plant at the bottom of a tropic sea, I suspect it has a basic function: It's designed for success on the pop charts. The miniature hiphop carnival that is "Mirai e no kagi" can entertain three pop tastes at once (indie rock, dance hall, rap).

"Mirai e no kagi" is representative of a lot of the Japanese hiphop I've heard. Bands like East End x Yuri, Dragon Ash, and Scha Dara Parr blend a variety of sounds into odd hiphop shapes and beat measures that most American fans would regard with complete indifference. Occasionally these types of bands come up with a great song, like Scha Dara Parr's "Into the Dream" or "Moon Distract," but much of the material is interesting because of its novelty rather than the quality of hiphop.

Japan, however, does produce serious hiphop. It's made by bands like Rhymester, Microphone Pager, Twigy (formerly of Microphone Pager), and, of course, DJ Krush. The difference is that these MCs and DJs actually use hiphop for authentic creative expression, as opposed to the mimicking and gimmicking that defines bands like East End x Yuri and Zeebra.

The best and most accessible example is DJ Krush, who began by making the kind of funk/jazz/hiphop fusion that Guru promotes on his Jazzmatazz series. At first, there was nothing in his production that distinguished him--it sounded like jazzy American/European hiphop. But in 1995 (an important transitional year for Japanese hiphop) he released Meiso, which departs from heavy American sounds to a new blend that uses minimalist Japanese sounds.

The second-to-last song on Meiso, "Duality," demonstrates the essential differences between Japanese and American hiphop by juxtaposing DJ Krush with the American DJ Shadow. DJ Krush opens the song with a sparse, spacious, short rumination that progresses like a very slow fuck. It's as if he were trying to hold still the quivering pleasure of intercourse. DJ Shadow responds to this slow erotic hiphop with a loud, long, orgasmic turntable extravaganza.

After this landmark CD, DJ Krush went on to develop a hiphop characterized by micro-sonic details, wide beat spaces, and unfocused samples of ancient flutes or bells. Shimmering songs like "Shin Ki Row"--which means "mirage of the sea"--use the hiphop frame in such a way that contributes to the genre's aesthetic range (unlike Zeebra's weird and purely entertaining songs).

Though DJ Krush's new CD, Zen, is mostly made up of performances by American singers and rappers, the sound is profoundly Japanese. And "Candle Chant," the track featuring the Japanese rapper Boss the MC, proves without a doubt that the Land of the Rising Sun is in the house.