DJ Krush

Attention, legend! Alive! One would like to play Hideaki Ishii a.k.a. DJ Krush Tom Liwa's "cover story versus full page ad". The beginning: "Hey dude! Wouldn't have thought ...". Hey dude! Didn't think the peculiar mix of hip-hop, trip-hop, jazzy ambient breakbeats that landed you on James Lavelle's mega-hip "Mo' Wax" label in the mid-1990s would still carry you into the second decade of the 21st century? Or would it? Hey, the man, born in 1962, used to be a gangster. Yakuza. Before the legendary movie "Wildstyle" got him hooked on hip-hop. And so he decided to become a DJ. First with his brother as Crash & Bang. Then - in 1987 - in the Krush Posse. At least in Japan, he was the first DJ to perform with live musicians. Then came trip hop and downtempo. Then in the mid-1990s the first albums, whose "Abstract Turntablism" with magical flow seems very well aged. In addition, DJ Krush surprised again and again with intelligent moves and the right collabs at the right time: sometimes with Sly & Robbie, sometimes with Toshinori Kondo, sometimes with MosDef. In 2002 he opened the Enjoy Jazz Festival with an impressive set. In 2008 he had a great jazz set in his suitcase at the Karlstorbahnhof. In 2014 he played again at the Karlstorbahnhof. At that time he had just celebrated the 20th anniversary of his solo career with an exclusive showcase at Tokyo's "Liquidroom" and released a "self-remixed best of" album titled "Stepping Stone". In 2020 his latest album "Trickster" was released, a dark, experimental, dystopian thing with surprising sounds under the surface. Even in his showcases, he seems to continue to strive to remain as unpredictable as possible and still deliver even to his old hip-hop fans of the first hour, even if the signs are now also dubstep or trap. Nevertheless, everything but nostalgia!