DJ Krush At The Electric Ballroom

DJ Krush At The Electric Ballroom

30 April, 2010
by: Trol23

The Electric Ballroom hosted DJ Krush, the Godfather of Japanese hip hop. Tomas Olesen was there to watch him show the kids how it's really done.

Anchorsong is a great way to open up for DJ Krush. His sounds, despite being very different, compliments Krush's quite well in that they both make music that appears more ambient than it actually is. I find myself nodding along hard to quite mellow piano lines that are backed by waves of peaking hats and solid warm bass lines. The live aspect of his beats means there is a real groove to his tunes, and with just an MPC and a keyboard he makes a surprisingly big and complex wall of sound.

Mr Thing puts down solid sets of hip hop classics before Anchorsong and between the acts and really smacks it. Those of you who check out his Fun House shows from his kitchen on Ustream will know what I'm talking about. When DJ Krush comes out on stage he too applauds Mr Thing as earnestly as us. 

When I heard DJ Krush for the first time in the mid '90s it was the most cutting edge, glitchy, eerie noise I'd ever heard in hip hop. Now, 15 years later, DJ Krush is still avant-garde, still miles ahead of the game. He never needs to resort to blatant, in-your-face stuff to make it hit hard either. Even the most thumping of beats he throws out are subtley restrained. It's break-your-neck stuff rather than full-on dance party but it never gets boring; he's always moving it along somehow. 

You know that sketch Chris Rock does about how one used to be able to argue the case for hip hop being art, before the bling and the beef? Well DJ Krush upholds that tradition: this is art, that original hip hop exported from the Bronx to the world via Wildstyle and Beat Street. His take on it is entirely his own sound though. Every now and again during his set I feel I can hear echoes of modern genres like dubstep and IDM, but then thinking about it, where did you first hear that modern glitchy sound? Although it's always people like Horsepower Productions that get mentioned when talking about the roots of dubstep and future garage, the early to mid 1990s Mo Wax sound must have had a far-reaching influence on many of today's producers who grew up on seminal releases by people like Krush, DJ Shadow, and Attica Blues. 

My personal highlight was almost inevitably going to be my favourite Krush tune, 'Kemuri'. To hear him cut it up live is a pleasure and the mix into it is just sublime. The crowd's reaction shows it isn't just me that particularly loves that tune. DJ Krush has now embraced Serato but he seems to be tapping away on an effects unit in the mixer too, achieving sounds that at times put me in mind of granular synthesis and which add an otherworldy element to the mix.

There are some shows which require front row viewing and that's where I am for the whole thing: nodding happily in the squeeze of similarly enthusiastic hip hop heads. DJ Krush is, unbelievably, a grandfather. He is by far the most 'now' grandad I've ever had the pleasure of seeing DJ though, and I can only hope to be front and centre enjoying his unique take on the boom bap in another twenty years when he's a great grandad. 

Click here for an interview with DJ Krush.

Check out London hip hop
Check out London Live Music
Check out Things To Do in London

Trol23