Whole bunch of Japanese releases from Baku and Kentaro

March 2, 2007 by Laurent
Filed under Tablist News

Two of Japan’s biggest tablist names, DJ Baku and DJ Kentaro, have got some pretty big releases incoming in the next few weeks and months.

First up is DJ Kentaro who is finally releasing his debut album, ‘Enter’ on Ninja Tune in late April. The album features collabos with The Pharcyde, Hifana, Hunger and fellow NT artists New Flesh and Spank Rock. Overall it’s a pretty uptempo and dancefloor minded affair, showcasing primarily Kentaro’s production chops, which are heavily based around the turntable but do also include quite a lot of drum n bass and electronic music influences.

Don’t be expecting an all out scratch affair, but then again who would really want that these days (this is not up for debate btw), but instead a fairly interesting offering from the Japanese scratch machine and relentless club performer. Varying between styles and speeds, the album should appeal across the board even if it does feel a little unfocused at times. Still with Kentaro’s popularity in the wider DJ scene and his hard work on the club circuit this one is likely to do well, and I’m sure Ninja Tune hopes so too.

‘Enter’ comes out in late april, and is preceded by the Spank Rock collabo single ‘Free’. Hit up Ninja Tune for more info and details. Look out for a worldwide tour as of May too, starting with Europe I believe.

Next up is DJ Baku, Japan’s other main tablist, DJ and producer and someone who is much less known than Kentaro outside of his home country. Though hopefully our Japanese special last year, and recent airing of tracks from his debut album have helped to change that a little. Baku has been keeping since the releasing of his aforementioned debut album, ‘Spinheddz’, in the summer of 2006.

Baku is releasing a brand new single under the name NoizdPhank on the POP GROUP label this month. The single features Tokyo producers Think Tank and Heavy Takeshi, and is a nice change from his album with a much more mellow, electronica vibe. Baku’s also been remixing for Bleubird (available exclusively on the ‘Rip USA’ album Japanese release) and Blue Foundation (available on the Solid Origami release on POP GROUP) as well as working on a new mix CD, ‘Hybrid BBoy Killa Cuts’ which is out now on the DDD label and with distro through WENOD records.

The mix CD is a run through some of Baku’s favourite drum n bass/hip hop bootlegs of recent years, also nicely mixed and mashed up and also featuring tracks from his new NoizdPhank project. Lastly Baku’s also released an exclusive small run of the ‘Spinheddz Secret Weapons’, a double vinyl release featuring instrumentals, sounds and samples from his debut album.

All of these releases can be found by either checking out the POP GROUP website (and clicking on the catalogue link) or WENOD records. Though Japanese is likely to help you navigate and understand what to do (or use Babelfish).

Look out for audio from all these projects and more in upcoming podcasts (I swear the new one’s coming reallll soon).

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