Kentaro

Music is borderless.

On his debut LP for Ninja Tune, DJ Kentaro creates a space where music is not constrained by pace or genre, a world without walls. He invites you to ‘Enter’ – prepare to be astonished.

DJ Kentaro’s win at the 2002 World DMC Championships is legendary. He achieved the highest score in the competition’s history, with a technically flawless, powerfully musical set that astonished judges, crowds, and competitors alike. His affiliation with Ninja Tune began soon after – a fixture on the Zen TV tours, his originally Japan-only Solid Steel mix for the label became a hot import. His hyper-speed beat-juggling and scratching actually pushed things forward – but his lasting contribution to turntablism will be his open-ended personal philosophy, expressed as ‘No Walls Between The Music’.

To put Kentaro’s eclecticism in context, he was born too late to claim one single genre as his own. He was just 20 when they crowned him Best DJ in the World, and handed him a pair of gold Technics. But although he shook the DMCs and the DJ fraternity to its core, he refuses to be messianic about his mission: “There will always be purists,” he says. “As long as they enjoy their pure form, that is OK.”

Kentaro is also modest when discussing his 2002 win: “I think the DMCs were better before I won. People like Scratch Perverts, Roc Raida, Q Bert, DJ Craze and A-Trak are legendary now.” Since 2002, many more scratch DJs are cross-cutting genres and playing sets that are musical, rather than battling or doing short, showpiece mixes. “You never know,” Kentaro hints, “I may come back in a year or two.”

In London for a rare press day is to discuss his debut artist LP, ‘Enter’, Kentaro is keen to point out that the album has been gestating for a while. “I’ve always wanted to do it. I’ve made tunes for a long time, but I started this album one and a half years ago. It’s my understanding of hip-hop, taking in many styles of music. When I won the DMCs I brought in reggae, hip-hop, house and drum and bass into a six-minute set. The album is an extension of this vision that music is borderless.”

‘Enter’ is not the standard ‘DJ turns producer’ album. Far from it. Kentaro can employ any or all of his chosen genre elements in one song, making the notion that they are separate and distinct forms absurd. Opening track ‘New World Dawning’ flows effortlessly from traditional Japanese shamisen strings, via hip-hop and glitched-up electro to jungle, all in under three minutes. Guest appearances from label-mates New Flesh and Spank Rock are also above par. Was this because the Hollertronix crew and Part 2’s mob share a similar musical perspective? And how did he get the Pharcyde involved?

“They are all friends first,” Kentaro replies. “I first met The Pharcyde in 2003, and we jammed together. The track ‘Space Jungle’ has all 4 members of Spank Rock rapping together for the first time. They said, ‘Leave us for a few hours,’ so me and my manager left the room and came back. They’d written all the words down, and drunk a bottle of vodka. It’s great fun working with Spank Rock!”

Kentaro’s debut sits comfortably alongside Ninja Tune’s seminal back catalogue, and its more recent masterworks. “My dream was to release my debut album on Ninja Tune,” he says proudly. “People such as Coldcut, DJ Food and Funki Porcini have been in my record collections for as long as I can remember.”

Music is borderless.

The first Asian DJ to win the DMC’s, Kentaro is in a unique position to comment on the turntablism scene in Japan: “There are people like DJ Come and Yasa that people should look out for, for sure. A lot of the best turntabalists around at the moment seem to come from France and Germany too. It’s hard to get noticed in Japan as a turntablist, there are fewer venues than in the UK, where you have many pubs too. In Japan, more people have turntables than guitars.”

Despite the competition and the lack of smaller venues, Japan’s club scene always gives a hearty welcome to Ninja Tune’s Zen TV tour. Standing in the massive, warehouse-like space of AgeHa (an 8,000 capacity Tokyo venue with 30-foot video walls, a poolside dancefloor, and a soundsystem the size of a semi-detached house), a lucky few thousand punters witnessed Kentaro and collaborators Spank Rock and Coldcut rip it up in spectacular fashion in April last year. It felt like a unique moment in music history – British clubbing paled in comparison, with its dingy basement venues and boombox PAs.

If you’re lucky, Kentaro may export his sound in the near future: “I like the multiculturalism of London,” he explains. “No walls between people! I like playing Cargo: it may be smaller, but it has an amazing new sound system. People come to Cargo to see you, where as at other clubs there is a bigger bill. I would like to get some of the MCs from the album to my shows. It would be great to get the Pharcyde up on the stage with me!”

If that doesn’t whet your appetite, check out the YouTube links below, which include Kentaro’s winning DMC set and an absolutely astonishing battle clip, where he takes on legendary shamisen musician Shinichi Kinoshita. As moving as it is mind-blowing, it perfectly demonstrates why ‘No Walls Between The Music’ makes perfect sense.

“Each genre or scene should have their own pride and thoughts,” says Kentaro finally. “Perhaps if everyone was a ‘No-Waller’, people could get closer and shake hands, and maybe make the world more peaceful.”

-
Join the Clash mailing list for up to the minute music, fashion and film news.