Saturday 20 November 2010

DJ KRUSH – KAKUSEI (SONY MUSIC)


DJ KRUSH – KAKUSEI (SONY MUSIC)

At some point I thought all music would sound like this as we emerged head first into the 21st century.  This should be the sound that accompanies our new fresh sterile cities, way of life and existence in general.  I love this music, it doesn’t demand too much of my being and effort, which at the end of the day is much appreciated as already enough aspects of the world appear intent in tearing me apart.

The music of DJ Krush is minimal but pleasingly effective.  His way offers a very helpful and useful mental workout.  The drive is subtle but also explicitly intensive, helping to furnish and score any task or mindset.  It works on many levels slowing down systems while speeding up mental environments.  The repetition of the beats serves almost as some kind of ignition and pulse for manoeuvre.

This is the kind of music you would expect to exist in cool Tokyo basement clubs lit by neon appliance and attitude.  It expresses a motion and state of cool where time is not of the essence.  Where one track ends and another begins is true grey area.  Kakusei is a single piece of work best taken as a whole to streamline the chore of existence.  Often it ticks like a bomb as the results feel endless.  Whenever an album begins with “Intro” and ends with “Outro” you can be sure you are listening to a singular piece.  It follows a grand jazz tradition.

Turntablism heavily subscribes to the cut-up methodology made famous by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin which was later adopted and adapted by many electronic artists such as Scanner and Bomb The Bass.  In deconstruct DJ Krush achieves reconstruct.

As a constant/persistent beat flows through standing out are tracks such as “Deltaforest” which engages downbeat piano drops and frequency distortion as garnish and frill.  Later on “1200” smoky little jazz inserts cater a heavenly tone/feel while it is on tracks such as “Crimson” and “85 Loop” where the beat is felt hardest.  Later less subtle is the flowing saxophone and orchestra strings of “The Dawn”.  Eventually it is “Final Home” where folding train samples and the drums of distant movement offer most urban suffocation.

A Slow moving vehicle.

Thesaurus moment: abatement.

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