History of DJ Krush, a three-disc retrospective on the career of said artist, packages together two documentaries and a disc of videos spanning fifteen years of the ambient/trip-hop turntablist’s career.
The first disc, A-Un, was a Japanese-only VHS release made in 1996. Though it claims to be part of the History of DJ Krush, the only bit of history one really gleams from its sixty minutes of near-constant slow motion and hazy lens filters is that all those grainy DV effects were pretty tired even ten years ago.
Unfortunately, much of Krush’s work feels similarly dated. Some of the live collaborations and studio footage are more inspired, especially CL Smooth on “Only the Strong Survive.” But the first five minutes simply recycle the video of that high-water-mark single, which pops up again on disc three.
Disc two, Ko-no-Michi, is a bit more substantive, featuring DJ Krush’s first long interview and testimonials from famous friends like DJ Shadow and Sly and Robbie. There’s still not much of a narrative. At one point, Krush tells us that he got into hip hop after watching Wild Style as a kid. Director Charlie Ahearn even shows up to emphasize the point, but it doesn’t provide much context.
There is much waxing poetic over the international, ethno-cultural unity Krush represents as a successful, respected Japanese turntablist. Around the time Krush was making A-Un, music journalist Robert Christgau dismissed Lenny Kravitz (once celebrated for similar reasons) by saying, “Lenny, your work here on Earth is done. We’ve got Derek Jeter now.”
Actually, after three hours of relentlessly down-tempo trip hop and ham-fisted filmmaking, even Lenny doesn’t sound so bad.
-Stephen Gossett
DJ Krush: www.djkrush.net
Red Ink: www.redmusic.com/redink