DJ Krush: Perfection from Japan

Interview with DJ Krush about his new Album "Kakusei"

DJs are an important part of the electronic music scene. Japanese drum'n'base would not be known too well in Europe, if it wasn't for DJ Krush, who proved to be a perfectionist handycraftsman of sounds. With his new release "Kakusei" ("Awakening") he returns to purely instrumental means to realize his vision of a universal musical code.

His style is as characteristic as his permanent switching between Drum'n'Base, Trip Hop, Hip Hop and ambient influences. In his creative approach towards recombination and alienation of sampled textures he points the focus at the originality that's part of the musician and not of the hardware, as conventional understanding of music sometimes suggests. His walls of sound reminds one of fractal graphics, unfolding their complexity in the smallest of pieces. He combines his aiming for perfection with a seemingly musical minimalism, resulting in abstract intentions that not only have to be heard, but to be thought.

When Slavoj Zizek says about Hip Hop, that "the subject is reduced to a happy faced idiot, who isn't capable of anything but meaningless murmur" (Slavoj Zizek: Das Unbehagen im Subjekt. Passagen 1998), he overseas the subliminal dimension in popular culture. The conditions of its production as seen by Adorno and Horkheimer (Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno: Kulturindustrie, Aufklärung als Massenbetrug. In: Dies.: Dialektik der Aufklärung. Frankfurt am Main 1998) are no longer sufficient to explain the manipulative patchwork process that is typical of electronic music. Only the generation of musicians, who accept hardware as an instrument without pessimistic cultural fear will also accept the new, distinctive dimension of electronic music. DJ Krush is part of this generation.

It took you some time after your released "meiso" to finish your next album. How would you characterize the main changes that have happened in between the two releases?

DJ Krush: I had decided that the next album after "MiLight" will be an instrumental. I felt like "MiLight" had completed the "first stage" of my music, and I wanted to go back to the basics again. I felt that with an instrumental music, I can bring out all of my flavors. Compared to my second album, which was also an instrumental, "KAKUSEI" has been put together with more caution and precision to each and every sound, as if looking & placing every bit with a microscope.

After listening to "kakusei", I got the impression that your sound has become more ambient-like, sometimes very quiet, but always combining scratches and samples in very subliminal way. Would you call yourself a perfectionist?

DJ Krush: Basically, when I was working on the album I had the intention of making perfect tracks. But it's almost impossible to make the perfect album, espcially when there are many guest artists. So although I am in a sense a perfectionist, I haven't been able to create a perfect work yet. What I do though, is to pay attention to the smallest of details. Sometimes it may sound like a simple track, but it has complex details to every sound you hear if you listen to it really carefully.

Is "kakusei" a Japanese word or did you make it up? If yes, then why this titel? If no, what does it mean?

DJ Krush: "Kakusei" is a Japanese word which means awakening. Human beings doesn't use a lot of their right brain. I wanted to get those right brains working. I wanted to come up with an album that one would have to feel with their brain, something you don't listen with your ears. To tell the truth, I wouldn't have cared if this album didn't have a title.

Electronic Music, in Austria especially Drum'n'Base, has become extremely popular during the last two or three years. One can sense a shift in the understanding or the patterns of interpretation of music, going hand in hand with the popularization of electronic music. Listeners, who wouldn't have called a DJ a musician a couple of years ago are now arguing about the skills of the turntabelists. How did you notice this shift?

DJ Krush: In the past, DJs have been told that all they do is play other people's records, even myself. But there were always musicians that respected DJs. In Japan, I worked with young Japanese bands. The band members thought of me as a musician who creates sounds that cannot be made from musical instruments, and not so much as a DJ. There are a lot of band that include a DJ as a part of their member. DJs ourselves don't see a gap between us and other musicians. But there are still the "old-type" musicians that draws a line between us and just would not approach us. The same kind of things could be said to some young hiphoppers too, though I see a lot of the younger DJs are more open to trying new things now.

It's worth a try, and if it turns out bad, then that's that. For a DJ, being in a band is very educational. There's so much you can learn from the experience. There will be so much more interactions between the members & the sounds. You need to find what you can do within that environment. As I have said before, there isn't as much distance between DJs and musicians now, and so the audience is also getting used to seeing more of such interactions between DJs and bands.

Public Enemy released their new single on the internet, more and more musicians start to creatively reflect the possibilities of new media, stating that electronic media must be seen as a whole and can't be separated into music / media etc... What is your opinion on that and how does the hardware you use influence your work?

DJ Krush: It's probably true, especially overseas than in Japan. As far as the technology goes, I have to say that as a DJ, there's no denying that I depend on it. But no matter how advanced the computer is, or how electronic the instruments may be, if the person can't bring out their color, atmosphere & themselves into their music, the track's no good. One must realize that ultimately, a human being controls the instruments. That makes all the difference.

I don't say that the hardware doesn't have any influence on my music at all, cuz that's ultimately where the sound is produced. It's like the central station. What hardware you choose to use is based on how you like the sound it produces, how comfortable it is in using it, and how it fits to your use. Using a different hardware would probably change the outcome of the sound, but I don't think it makes much difference in terms of your originality or distinctiveness. The sound all starts from what you sample and what you do with it. I think that whatever hardware you use, your originality or characteristics will be revealed. I mean, if that's not the case, then you can't call it your originality, can't you? So whatever hardware I use to make my music, it should be something so that anyone could tell that it's KRUSH, from the mood and the atmosphere the sound creates.

What is your approach towards music? DJ Spooky says that music is language and vice versa. Would you call yourself rather "writer" or "musician"?

DJ Krush: I like this saying. I wanted to stress the statement here by Spooky. I do believe that music is language, and language is music. When I make instrumental music, I have in mind that music is a language. I believe that music is the universal laguage that everyone on the globe could comprehend, making everyone dance, enjoy, etc. If someone on one side of the globe creates a sad track, another person on the other side of the globe would hear the track and know that it's a sad track. I have faith in that. I believe that if anything, music can bring the world together.

I think I'm more of a "musician". I have different images in mind when I'm creating tracks. But I don't think in words. I create sounds that you can feel. There are so much that I can't explain or express in words. Maybe I'm just not good at it. That's probably why I make music.

What about the electronic-music-scene in Japan?

DJ Krush: There are now Japanese Drum'n'Bass players. Until recently, It was all imports from US or Europe, but now I can find ones just as well in Japan. Japan still hasn't had a big break with electro music. But the young people now are growing up in an technologically advanced time. When these young people grow up and the next generation comes, the electro-music scene may show a great change. Electro-music has just started in Japan. The techniques of Japanese musicians are advancing, but the instruments aren't catching up to them.