Japan isn’t just the home to some of the world’s best turntables. It is also, by no small coincidence, home to some of the best turntablists. The great website turntableradio.com has been celebrating this natural national direct-drive resource with a series of live performances, most recently a massive jam session featuring a who’s who of Japanese dual-deck activity (notable exceptions including DJs Krush and Honda, certainly). The participants this time around were seven different performers: Ken One, Naoki, Ichiro, DJ Duct, DJ Keita, Audace (who also played guitar), and XLII (who brought along a laptop). The set is just tremendous, mixing hip-hop and electronica, jazz samples and scratching, with more than enough prowess to cement the reputations of the participants, but none of that veering into showmanship, or risking overpowering the music (MP3).
The two previous entries in this series focused on Ken One (turntableradio.com) and Naoki (turntableradio.com). There appears to be at least one additional entry scheduled.