DJ KRUSH VS. DJ KENTARO, LONDON KOKO, OCTOBER 3RD.

Now I know that Krush is deservedly revered in turntablism circles as a pioneer of moody atmospheric hip-hop beats. So I naturally expected this at his London show playing alongside former DMC champ and all-round stylus maestro Kentaro. But maybe Krush was having an off night? Maybe he wanted to play a set reminiscent of Wednesday nights in my old student union; £10 all you can drink listening to banal house music. Whatever the reason, he let me down slightly.  Granted, his foray into selecting (I can’t say he mixed well, rather pressed a button and selected a track) improved with Portishead and Massive Attack, but where was his own music? Maybe he thought “I’m playing London tonight, they want to hear stuff you’d hear in Ibiza”. No Krush, some of us wanted to hear the stuff you’re famous for, like anything off Kakusei or Zen. He is generally a don, but tonight unfortunately he was massively overshadowed by his fellow compatriot.

In contrast, Kentaro may have stagnated with his choice of tunes in the last two years but his skills are still impervious to being bettered, whether it’s beat juggling, scratching or those vocal drops that are always on point. I thought Craze was amazing using his elbows to scratch but shit, Kentaro uses almost every part of his upper body except his ears. Not to mention being so incredibly speedy the fast forward button on your DVD remote would struggle to keep up. The effortless simplicity of scratching the fuzzy melody from Robot Rock against the drums further proves how deft he is at timing. Visually, it helped that Koko had a camera on his 3 turntables; we, the blissfully rammed audience, were able to hang on to his every stylus shake and cross fade.

The apprentice further overshadowed his master when he and Krush had their 10 minute ‘battle’. In actual fact it was more of a tag-team; Krush laid down his trademark dark beats whilst Kentaro scratched all the itches out of his equipment, as opposed to the two battling in a conventional head-to-head contest. Who could care about the outcome when tonight provided a beautiful piece of DJ genealogy charting the pioneer Krush through to the evolutionary Kentaro.

Word: Chris McShee

Photgraphy by Tim Ferguson