Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 5

As promised the next episode of our B4B TV: Japan series is available to download and stream, a few weeks on from episode 4. This latest episode features a familiar face, that of Ken One – close friend of Turntable Radio and one of our favourite scratch guys worldwide. It’s not just that he’s dope, he’s also one of the nicest people we’ve ever had the pleasure to work with or meet.

I’ll let Yoshi do the introductions for this episode…

I first met Ken a couple of years ago, when LAN invited him to our first Scratch Day in Japan and since then he’s been involved with other stuff with B4B JP, including this shoot and our fourth Scratch Day, the video of which will be the sixth and final episode in the Japan series.

Ken has been a driving force in reviving the turntablist scene in Japan, being invited as a guest to a very famous radio show to give a talk on the art of scratching, and so on. He gives DJ lessons at his home (DJ Shintaro is Ken’s student) and is the most popular teacher for scratching in Tokyo along with Miyajima. He’s been involved with Raid System, a leading label for electronic music headed by Broken Haze (who now co-presents the RIRS show on Rhythm Incursions) and they run a UST channel called Raid System Radio which happens once a month with top guests like DUCT and Eccy. Also, if you haven’t checked out his video with Beardyman on Dommune make sure you do!

Back to the video, the first routine is completely freestyled, as I asked Ken to use that record (Kutter’s Choice from UKT, which was given to me by Mr. Brown when I shot B4B TV: UK) which he had never used before the shoot. So he composed that routine on the spot and it turned out brilliantly. As always, his drumming and scratching are world class and I’m certain every scratch head will be amazed by this video. So enjoy!

So there you have it, ten minutes of one of Japan’s finest in action, freestyling and doing what he does best. As always you can stream on youtube above and download below. Remember our iTunes and RSS feeds are the best ways to stay updated without much clicking – the casts will just go to your desktop or reader. This show is 129mb and as always in .m4a format optimised for iTunes and iPod/iPhone viewing but playable on all media players as long as you have the latest codecs.

Download Beat4BattleTV: Japan Episode 5 (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 4

Oh hai there. Yes we’re back, dusting off the cobwebs and things. Sorry for the quiet spell but as always life got in the way and both myself and Yoshi, our roving skratch reporter, have been busy elsewhere. Still we’re back for another episode of Beat4Battle TV: Japan, number 4 to be precise. It’s been six months since the last episode so we hope you enjoy this much delayed addition to our series.

As always with B4BTV this episode shines some light on a little known Japanese tablist by the name of Pop who Yoshi filmed last summer in Osaka. Here’s a little story on what happened from Yoshi:

I first got to know POP in June last year, when I saw his entry video for the Unknown Battle, which is an online scratch battle organised by STOKYO. He was scratching on Nu:Tone’s “Seven Years” and his clean cuts and smooth flow really struck me at the time. That was the first time I had seen a Japanese DJ cut on a Hospital track so I got really excited! I managed to contact him on mixi—a Japanese social networking site—and arranged a shoot with him when I was in Osaka for the Obon festival in August. While everyone was dying outside in the 38℃ weather, we were shooting the video inside the air-conditioned, Miki-Gakki DJ’s store in Shinsaibashi. I’ll never forget that Hong Kong Tomato Ramen that we had during our brief break… one of the tastiest ramens I’ve ever had!

As with our previous episodes B4B TV is brought to you in .m4v format, optimised for iPod and iTunes viewing but viewable on all media players and computers. If you have any problems we recommend updating your codecs before anything else. This episode is 10 mins long and comes in at 124mb in size. You can download it directly below or stream it on Youtube above.

That’s it, many thanks as always to Yoshi and to POP for their time and hard work. Stay tuned for more B4BTV episodes in the near future.

For now sit back and enjoy!

Download Beat4BattleTV: Japan Episode 4 (right click and save as)

RIP Dee Swift – A note on his passing

Stretched Animal Skin Drum Ten with Dee Swift by Awkward

From Mr Trick.

Its with real sadness today that I learned of the passing of David Holmes, aka Dee Swift.

Back in 1998 or so I started a forum for turntablists called Snatchcon. Spoofing the Q-Bert/Invisibl Skratch Piklz Scratchcon forum, what started as an attempt by me and some friends to punch a hole in the bullshit and posturing around the scratch scene soon snowballed into arguably one of Europe’s larger communities for fans of the tablist artform. That’s where I got to know Dee Swift, as he soon became the Snatchcon/Team SNIG “resident errant DJ” – so titled because he was a little enigmatic at best with a tendency to vanish for a week at a time, only to then appear in a flurry of posts and online punch-ups that became a humourous lynchpin of the site.

Dee was an enigmatic character in some respects. Incredibly gifted, he rapidly proved himself to be a seminal figure on the tablist scene, mainly via one practice session he’d once posted up called StretchedAnimalSkinDrum, which I’ve posted below for you to hear. The sheer technicality of his cuts soon had DJs the world over talking about him, and in a very short time he became the guy most other DJs wished they could cut like. Even now, listening to this track, it holds up: very, very few people even now could come close to that kind of technical cutting.

Not many people knew that Dee was also a highly gifted guitarist. To my amusement he also held the dubious honour of once being asked to join the British metal group Saxon, making him surely the only guy to ascend the world of scratch DJing and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Dee was a technician; we’d often argue about guitarists (me being a player too), with his all-time great players unsurprisingly including Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and others, while mine remained in the “vibe” players like Jimmy Page. We’d end up agreeing to disagree, on the basis the argument would never be resolved otherwise.

To me Dee was curious in that he was easily one of the most influential figures in the world of tablism around 2000-2003, and yet never released a proper EP, album, battle weapon or anything else. To that end, there’s a danger he’ll go unrecorded in the world of turntablism, when the truth is many, many DJs who emerged from that period would happily acknowledge his brilliance as a key influence on them. I seem to recall DJ Craze asking him to collaborate. Dave wasn’t interested. That pretty much summed him up though; he steadfastly refused to do anything other than what he wanted. Always a perfectionist, one argument for his lack of recorded material may be that he never felt it made the grade. I guess now we’ll never know.

Any which way, it should go on record that Dee Swift was one of the finest tablists of his time; someone who bucked a trend for battle DJing in favour of musicality. His contribution to a then very-exciting scene shouldn’t be forgotten; without him I wonder how much the tablists of the time would have been pushed to excel in the manner they did. Ironically – in my view anyway – it was after this heyday period that tablism generally got a little dull. Nobody matched the excitement of that time, and Dee contributed to that. He was a spiky character at times and downright difficult at others, but on the whole I’ll remember him as a warm guy with his own demons who was blessed with a true brilliance very few get to achieve.

Rest In Peace Dee

Listen to the files over at Mr Trick’s Posterous.

Ken One – Live at Skratch Evolution 2 videos

Quick one – our roving, globe-trotting skratch reporter Yoshi from Beat4Battle TV recently finished some edits of Ken One’s set at the Skratch Evolution 2 party which was held in Tokyo last December. You can view all the edits in the youtube playlist above, or by clicking right here.

We’d originally planned to do a joint series of audio and video podcasts for Skratch Evolution 2 but unfortunately we couldn’t due to various technical issues so instead we did a joint podcast series on Turntable Radio and Rhythm Incursions – which you can catch here (TTR mixes) and here (Rhythm Inc mixes) in its full glory if you haven’t yet. The mixes feature Ken One, XLII, Ichiro_, DJ Duct and more. Think of this youtube playlist as the late cherry on the cake.

Yoshi will be returning shortly with his Beat4Battle TV series. More news when we have them.

Enjoy!

SE2 week 4 – DJ Duct Skratch Evolution mix

We finish our Skratch Evolution 2 special with two mixes from the official CD that Ken One released ahead of the show. DJ Duct handles proceedings here on TTR while over on Rhythm Incursions it’s Ken One doing the honours. The SE2 special has been a month-long series of mixes and exclusive live audio from the event podcasted jointly between Rhythm Incursions and Turntable Radio. Catch up on all the TTR episodes here which have featured Ken One, Naoki and a memorable jam session with Ichiro_, Keita, XLII, Audace, Duct, Ken One and Naoki.

For our last week DJ Duct takes the reign for his half of the SE2 mix CD. This mix is a shorter version of the live set we aired on Rhythm Incursions on week 2, showcasing Duct’s unique one turntable mixing approach that sees him mix and mash and layer with his loop pedal for a result that is both aurally pleasing and entertaining.

For more on Duct is a bit from his official bio:

DJ DUCT’s ‘less is more’ approach to turntablism has led him to establish his current unique style of performing. Using one turntable, a DJ mixer, a sampler, Kaoss-pads and other effectors, he collages and reconstructs the bits and pieces of sounds he captures from the records on the spot. It involves a lot of sampling, real-time editing, effect mixing and scratching all taking place on stage. Since all the sounds come from the records (and no preliminary recorded materials on the sampler), it’s definitely a live performance, and an extension of DJing more than anything else.

More information on Duct is available at the myspace, alongside links to his releases on labels like Think Rec and Lybrus Music, two of Japan’s most interesting indie labels.

Be sure to check the archives both here and on Rhythm Incursions for all the live sets and audio from SE2. It’s been a great pleasure showcasing some of the most interesting sounds and producers on the Tokyo undeground today and massive thanks go to Ken and all the artists for their support. Look out for more collaborative series in the future.

For now enjoy!

Download DJ Duct Skratch Evolution mix (right click and save as)

SE2 week 3 – Jam session live @ Star Pines cafe

Week 3 of our joint Turntable Radio and Rhythm Incursions special featuring exclusive live audio from Ken One’s ‘Skratch Evolution 2′ event. If you missed the first two weeks you can catch up here for week 1, featuring Ken One live, and here for week 2, featuring a live set from Naoki. Full details of the month-long series is at the bottom of the post.

This week we’ve got a very tasty jam session from the event on Turntable Radio featuring the combined talents of Ken One, Naoki, Ichiro_, DJ Duct, DJ Keita, Audace and XLII. Over on Rhythm Incursions we’ve got edits of the Dolbee & Sibitt and XLII, Audace and Dyna live shows.

The jam session took place at the end of the evening and features pretty much every artist who performed on the night. The line up is: Ken One, Naoki, Audace, DJ Duct and Keita on turntables, loopers and effect, XLII on the laptop and Ichiro_ on guitar. For an improvised session, the 30 minutes that came out are of an impressive quality, spanning the spectrum of influences and styles that these guys each cover – from downtempo to hip hop beats, electronic to dub vibes.

Be sure to check each individual artist’s myspace and website for more on each. They all have various releases out now and upcoming and I recommend that if you like what you hear you check them all out, the music is well worth your time.

And don’t forget to check Rhythm Incursions for live edits from sets by Dolbee and Sibitt and XLII, Audace and Dyna.

For now though sit back and enjoy this improvised jam session with some of Tokyo’s finest and come back next week for the final installment in our series.

Download Skratch Evolution jam session (right click and save as)

SE2 special line up:

• Week 1
• Rhythm Incursions – Ichiro_ live
• Turntable Radio – Ken One live
• Week 2
• Rhythm Incursions – DJ Duct live
• Turntable Radio – Naoki live
• Week 3
• Rhythm Incursions – XLII + Dolbee&Sibitt (志人） live edits
• Turntable Radio – Skratch Evolution jam session
• Week 4
• Rhythm Incursions – Ken One Skratch Evolution promo mix
• Turntable Radio – DJ Duct Skratch Evolution promo mix

Tags: Audace, Duct, Guest Mixes, Ichiro_, Japan, Keita, Ken One, Live Sessions, Naoki, Skratch Evolution, Tokyo, XLII

SE2 week 2 – Naoki live @ Star Pines cafe

January 31, 2010 by Laurent  
Filed under Guest Mixes, Live Sessions, Podcasts (all)

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We continue our Turntable Radio and Rhythm Incursions Japan special with week 2 of exclusive audio from Ken One’s Skratch Evolution 2 event, held in Kichijoji, Tokyo in December 09. If you missed part 1 check it here.

Up this week we have a live set from Naoki, while over on Rhythm Incursions we have a DJ Duct live set. Full schedule of the 4-week long special is at the bottom of this post.

Naoki is someone I discovered thanks to Ken One when I was living in Tokyo. Well actually I met him alongside Ken, as he’s one of the few fluent DJs living in Tokyo and was an integral help in setting up the sessions we did in Tokyo in 07 and 08. It’s at that time I learnt he had already been making a name for himself on the Tokyo and Japanese tablist scene, most notably coming runner up at the 05 Vestax freestyle battle. He lost to Enfoe, from Texas, in a battle many agree is one of the closest and best Vestax ever ran.

Following this he’s been working alone, as well as with Ken One and Shige with whom he forms the Exsample band. Unfortunately I don’t think he has a myspace or website, but last I heard he was working on a break record that should be out now. We’ve also aired a few exclusive tracks of his in the past so be sure to check the archives for more.

EDIT: Turns out he does have a myspace, which you can check here for tracks and videos.

This live set is quite different from some of the music we’ve featured from him in the past and it’s a refreshing listen – electro and house styles sitting comfortably alongside more straight forward live tablist action and some seriously heavy drumming and cutting. I think it’s fair to say that this live set shows just why this young man is one of the country’s most talented tablists. I sure hope we get to hear more from him in the future.

So sit back and enjoy 40 mins of Naoki live, and be sure to also check Rhythm Incursions for some DJ Duct action this week.

Download Naoki live at Star Pines cafe (right click and save as)

SE2 special line up:

• Week 1
• Rhythm Incursions – Ichiro_ live
• Turntable Radio – Ken One live
• Week 2
• Rhythm Incursions – DJ Duct live
• Turntable Radio – Naoki live
• Week 3
• Rhythm Incursions – XLII + Dolbee&Sibitt (志人） live edits
• Turntable Radio – Skratch Evolution jam session
• Week 4
• Rhythm Incursions – Ken One Skratch Evolution promo mix
• Turntable Radio – DJ Duct Skratch Evolution promo mix

Tags: Guest Mixes, Japan, Live Sessions, Naoki, Skratch Evolution, Tokyo

SE2 week 1 – Ken One live @ Star Pines cafe

January 24, 2010 by Laurent  
Filed under Guest Mixes, Live Sessions, Podcasts (all)

2 Comments



As mentioned a few weeks back on Rhythm Incursions we’re starting a series of weekly podcasts, lasting a month, featuring exclusive live audio from Ken One‘s recent ‘Skratch Evolution 2‘ event. Held at Kichijoji’s Star Pines cafe, this musical evening featured a rather interesting mix of Tokyo’s underground music scenes with scratch DJs, producers and MCs coming together for a series of live showcases alongside some live painting. This was Ken’s second such event, up a notch from the first which was a more scratch-centered affair.

These podcasts also form the first joint Rhythm Incursions and Turntable Radio series, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while but hadn’t yet been able to. Every weekend for the next month we’ll be airing two exclusive live sets from the event, one on Turntable Radio and one on Rhythm Incursions showcasing the majority of the acts that appeared on the night. The schedule goes something like this:

• Week 1
• Rhythm Incursions – Ichiro_ live
• Turntable Radio – Ken One live
• Week 2
• Rhythm Incursions – DJ Duct live
• Turntable Radio – Naoki live
• Week 3
• Rhythm Incursions – XLII + Dolbee&Sibitt (志人） live edits
• Turntable Radio – Skratch Evolution jam session
• Week 4
• Rhythm Incursions – Ken One Skratch Evolution promo mix
• Turntable Radio – DJ Duct Skratch Evolution promo mix

So as you can see plenty to get stuck into, from the laid-back beats of Ichiro_ to the electronic hip hop of XLII via some of the best scratchers on the Tokyo underground.

We start the series on Turntable Radio with our old friend from Tokyo Ken One himself, who delivered a live set on the night that is true to form – plenty of quality routines, scratches and re-interpretations. Ken’s live sets keep getting better it seems, as he doesn’t rely on old tricks and always brings something new to the sets, whether it be a re-interpretation of previous productions/routines or something entirely new. Regular listeners will know that we’ve featured a fair bit of his live stuff in recent years and this is by far my favourite live set of his I think. If you’re new to his work then I suggest you hit up our archives to keep up to speed on the man and the music.

Not only was Ken’s set on the night rather good, he’s also to thank and congratulate for pulling this event together – a step up from his first attempt and definitely a nice opportunity for people to discover the variety and talent on the Tokyo underground, something that is too often difficult to discover when you’re not on the right side of the world.

For more info on Ken and his recent releases (including an excellent mix he released for free) head over to his myspace.

And if you like what you hear than be sure to check Rhythm Incursions for Ichiro_’s live set, which is also a keeper.

Massive thanks go to Ken One and all the artists for making this possible. It’s a real pleasure to be able to showcase more of the Tokyo underground to the rest of the world like this.

We’ll be back next week with part 2, featuring the rather incredible DJ Duct and Naoki. Till then crank up the volume and 聞いてください！

Download Ken One live at Star Pines cafe (right click and save as)

Tags: Guest Mixes, Japan, Ken One, Live Sessions, Skratch Evolution, Tokyo

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 3

January 5, 2010 by Laurent  
Filed under Live Sessions, Podcasts (all), Video Podcasts

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We return for 2010 in full effect with our roving scratch reporter Yoshi and his Beat4Battle TV series. This is episode 3 of the Japan series, which sees Yoshi hooking up with, and filming, a selection of the best, and often slept-on, Japanese turntablists.

For episode 3 he went all the way to Tanashi (actually not that far, it’s in the suburbs of Tokyo) to film DJ Rockhill, a seriously talented guy who I think most people definitely aren’t really up on – I know I wasn’t, even if the name was a little familiar from my time in Japan.

As with our previous episodes B4B TV is brought to you in .m4v format, optimised for iPod and iTunes viewing but viewable on all media players and computers. If you have any problems we recommend updating your codecs before anything else. This episode is 9 mins long and comes in at 105mb in size.

Many thanks to Yoshi for his work and time and to Rockhill for coming through. A seriously tasty show to start us off in 2010!

Look out for a series of special joint Turntable Radio and Rhythm Incursions podcasts coming up later this month and focusing on the Japanese scene once more, this time featuring both producers and scratch DJs that appeared at Ken One’s ‘Skratch Evolution’ party. This series will feature both audio and video podcasts.

For now though, sit back and enjoy Rockhill’s freestyles. You can stream the episode above and download it below. And if you don’t want to miss another one than we suggest you sign up to either our RSS, iTunes feed or email newsletter to be informed everytime a new podcast goes out.

Download Beat4Battle TV:Japan ep 3 (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 3
Featuring: DJ Rockhill
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi. Filmed at Rockhill’s studio, Tanashi, Tokyo in September 2009.

Tags: Beat4Battle TV, Japan, Live Sessions, Rockhill, Video Podcasts, Yoshi

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 2

November 2, 2009 by Laurent  
Filed under Live Sessions, Podcasts (all), Video Podcasts

1 Comment



We return to the B4B:TV Japan series after a little hiatus, and this time we bring you footage of some of Tokyo’s finest, including Turntable Radio friend and favourite Naoki.

Episode 2 was filmed at the August 2009 Scratch Day event, a freestyle scratch event which Yoshi has been organising in Tokyo over the last couple of years. Following his recent move to Europe he has moved the event from the Vestax PACO shop to what is possibly Tokyo’s most appropriate location: Miyajima’s scratch school in Tachikawa (which is located in the suburbs of the Japanese capital). Regular listeners and visitors will remember Miyajima from our Japan special podcasts, as well as from his appearance at DMC in 08 and in various DVD documentaries about the Japanese scratch scene. It’s fair to say that for many, including some of the country’s best scratch DJs, Miyajima is seen as the best freestyle scratch DJ in Japan, a real purist who approaches scratching with the same rigorous mentality some people approach martial arts. And yet he’s still friendly and approachable and far removed from scratch nerds – he’s just someone who takes what he does seriously. Scratch Day events are now organised everytime Yoshi goes back to Japan. The latest one took place last week and we should see footage from that in the near future. Anyone interested in finding out more about the events or taking part should drop Yoshi a line via the site’s contact page or any of the social networks.

For this episode, Yoshi’s chosen to feature 5 of the DJs who took part on the day: Shintaro, Audace (a French DJ and producer who we’ve also featured on Rhythm Incursions recently), LAN, Naoki and Samu. This time he has gone for a tighter edit highlighting each DJ and their cutting in more detail. The footage also gives a nice view of Miyajima’s school and what the day was like. Definitely reminds me of the couple of live sessions I organised while in Tokyo, with a similar, relaxed vibe.

So that’s it, sit back and enjoy episode 2 and look out for the next one coming this way soon.

This episode is 10 minutes long, and comes in at 109mb. As with all our video podcasts it’s optimised for iPod and iTunes (.m4v file) viewing but can be played with all standard media players as long as you have the latest codecs.

You can preview/stream it above and download it right below. To make sure you don’t miss an episode subscribe to our podcast feed on iTunes or in any feed reader/aggregator/podcatcher.

Download Beat4Battle TV:Japan ep 2 (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 2
Featuring: Shintaro, Audace, Samu, Lan and Naoki
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi. Filmed at Miyajima’s school in Tachikawa, Tokyo in August 2009.

Tags: Audace, Beat4Battle TV, Japan, LAN, Live Sessions, Miyajima, Naoki, Samu, Shintaro, Video Podcasts, Yoshi

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