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)

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 3

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.

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 2

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.

Community Skratch Tour 09 – The video

We return to this side of the pond with a brand new video from the Community Skratch collective, this time summing up their recent 09 tour which saw the crew, and friends, take to various pubs and live venues up and down England for some serious skratch action.

The tour rolled through the country in August, at the height of England’s summer (ie. it wasn’t raining), with the following skratchers packed into a van: Grandeurs of Delusion, Blam and Plato (from Norway), Blood One, Discuss, Clockwork, Lone Wolf, Vince Mack Mahon (from Ireland), Fluins and Crkrik (from Germany) and Fidel Cutstro. As you can imagine it was a rather messy affair, and they captured it all on tape and edited it down to 30 mins of madness, and music, for your enjoyment. So if you missed it this is the perfect chance to see what the fuss is all about, and if you were at any of the dates it’s the perfect way to remind yourself just how much fun you had.

2tall and myself went down to the last date, in Brighton for the BBQ event, and it was a blast to say the least. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed myself at a skratch event like this, and this is most likely due to the fact that it wasn’t a ‘skratch’ event as such, which is where the guys have really hit it on the head for me. They’re there, doing what they love, for nothing more than the love of it, and that translates with the crowds. Others need to take notice.

As mentioned the video is a 30 min edit of what took place during those 6 days, with plenty of live footage, including the superb live show by Jimmy the Penguin, behind the scenes and crowd reactions (that dude talking about dj battles has a point).

You can download the video below and preview a small part of it above (the excellent ‘Chestpiece’ track by G.O.D). It comes in at 218mb, .m4v format optimised for iPod and iTunes viewing, but will work with all standard media players as long as you have the latest codecs.

Big big thanks to the Community Skratch crew for their love and support. Shouts to Rich and Kirky for the video/photo work. Remember you can buy the latest releases from G.O.D and Vince Mac Mahon over at the Nozl shop, and look out for audio from them and more in the next podcast. And thanks to Mark at Skratchworx for the photo!

Download the video here (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 1

Ok so we’re still a little late with the long overdue ‘normal’ podcast show and resuming of the Mr Trick Years broadcast, but in the meantime we’re keeping you entertained with the first episode of the new B4B TV from Yoshi, this time shining a light on the Japanese scratch scene.

This first episode acts as a teaser of sorts too, as the series won’t actually start as such until next month. Yoshi’s moving to Europe for the year to study and so with the move and other important things on the line the actual B4B TV:Japan series won’t be broadcast weekly until later in October.

Here’s what Yoshi had to say about this particular episode, which features a rather unknown Tokyo skratch kid by the name of Lunch:

I was introduced to Lunch by a good friend of mine, LAN, who competed with him in a DJ battle called “Scratch Colosseum” that took place in early June this year. It turns out that Lunch is a student of Miyajima, another friend of mine and whom I consider to be one of if not the best scratcher in the world. This video was shot at Lunch’s friend’s house (Lunch said his own place was too messy to be filmed!) in Hon-Atsugi on the 30th July 2009. Please sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

Actually another change to the series, apart from the geographical setting, is the decision to keep episodes down to 10 mins in length. This is taking in feedback from various viewers and others. It also means the podcasts should be a little easier on your desktop/iPod/portable viewer!

This episode is 10 minutes long, and comes in at 106mb. 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 1 (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: Japan – Episode 1
Featuring: DJ Lunch
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi.

Beat4Battle TV:UK – Episode 6

And so we reach the end of the Beat4Battle TV:UK series, with episode 6. As Yoshi put it, it ends on number 6 just like any old BBC series! This time the spotlight it turned on yet another little known scratcher, Mikey originally from Hong Kong but currently residing in the UK. Here’s a little background info from Yoshi:

“Before I came up with the idea of “B4B TV” in early June, I didn’t have any plans for the summer other than a personal trip to Hong Kong with my friends in August. I knew that there was this one DJ from Hong Kong called Mikey, who is the 2006/2008 DMC champion there and also a very talented scratcher. I admired his exceptional skill and was eager to meet him, so I contacted him on Myspace to see if he would be free in the period that I’d be in HK. He replied to let me know that he in fact lives in Victoria, a fact to which I was delighted since I was already in the UK at the time. I went to his house on that weekend to have a session together and I continued to meet him for a session each weekend after, until my return to Tokyo. After I had filmed the material for the first five episodes of the series, I asked if he was down to be filmed for the sixth episode of “B4B TV: UK” to which he agreed. I think we filmed the episode on the second or the third of our weekend meets. Well, I hope that you enjoy this episode!”

This episode is 17 minutes long, and comes in at 206mb. 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.

Despite this being the last Beat4Battle TV:UK episode it’s far from the end of the series itself. Up next we have a bonus episode (TBC), a Beat4Battle TV:China episode and then a new series focusing on the Japanese scene Beat4Battle TV:Japan. Before all of this, and unless my ridiculously charged schedule gets more ridiculous, I’ll be airing a new Turntable Radio podcast full of new music. More info on all of that soon!

Download Beat4Battle TV:UK ep 6 (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: UK – Episode 6
Featuring: DJ Mikey
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi.

Beat4Battle TV:UK – Episode 5.1

After a little holidaying break, which I’ve just found may have actually been filled with more filming, Yoshi’s back with episode 5 of Beat4Battle TV:UK. This time he shines a light on DJ Clix, someone you may not be too familiar with (I know I wasn’t!). Here’s a bit more explanation from Yoshi:

“This episode features DJ Clix, who is quite unknown but a very good scratcher and beatmaker. He contacted me through Myspace when he saw that I was looking for scratch DJs to film for B4B TV and we met up a day after the original e-mail. I already knew who he was because I saw a video he had out on YouTube a while back where he scratches and was quite impressed then. I’m glad that I can give him more exposure on Turntable Radio, in the amount he rightfully deserves for his skill. That’s what B4B TV is all about…”

So without further ado we proceed with episode 5. This episode is 18 minutes long, and comes in at 216mb. 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:UK ep 5 part 1 (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: UK – Episode 5 part 1
Featuring: DJ Clix
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi.

Beat4Battle TV:UK – Episode 4.1

A new week and a new episode of Beat4Battle TV:UK. This time Yoshi stopped by in London for a little informal session with Maroon from NozL, Discuss and Manipulate who are all part of the Community Skratch Games collective. 2tall and myself popped over to catch up with everyone and 2tall was promptly ropped into a couple of sessions too.

As with episodes 2 and 3, this is part 1 and the remaining parts will be put on Vimeo shortly for you to stream.

As usual big thanks to Yoshi for his hard work, and big ups to Discuss and the boys for the hospitality and laughs. Roll on the Community Skratch Tour later in August.

This episode is 22 minutes long, and comes in at 266mb. 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:UK ep 4 part 1 (right click and save as)

Beat4Battle TV: UK – Episode 4 part 1
Featuring: Discuss, Maroon, Manipulate and 2tall.
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi at Discuss’ house.