Silent All These Years

Hideaki Ishii is a musician of considerable mythology. One of Japan's earliest hip hop musicians, Ishii was introduced to his career only after enduring a stint as a low-ranking member of the Yakuza (wherein the discovery of a friend's severed finger convinced him to leave the criminal fraternity). Upon viewing 1983 hip hop film Wild Style, Ishii decided to become a DJ and, eventually, a producer.

In the years since, Ishii's work and reputation as DJ Krush has developed legendary status. In addition to pioneering hip hop music within Japan, Ishii's once-unique blend of classic hip hop breaks, cinematic orchestration and unsettling ambience has long since been embraced globally as the template of instrumental hip hop. Krush's second solo album, for example, was released on Mo'Wax; eventual home of DJ Shadow's Endtroducing.

With that in mind, it's less than surprising to note that Ishii's celebration of his twentieth anniversary last year ate up a significant amount of his time. The DJ/producer counts Shadow, Tobin and countless others as his acolytes. In celebrating twenty years of music-making, he performed shows and organised events across twenty different countries – and purely because the market wanted him to do it.

“The anniversary celebrations were fantastic. We had a great time. It also gave me motivation to power through the next twenty years,” Ishii says of the past twelve months. “When I started my career, my daughter was only four years old – but now she is a mother with two kids. I'm grandfather. Can you imagine? It peps me up a lot, though. Gives me energy.”

The unfortunate by-product being DJ Krush's triumphant return to recorded music was delayed even further. Ishii was once one of his genre's most prolific musicians – averaging a new album every eighteen months. Unfortunately, he hasn't released a new album of material since 2004's Jaku. There's been a smattering of singles, one-off projects and vague promises but no album.

“I think I will be able to announce my new production work very soon. My new album is coming and also some production projects and collaborations are going on right now. You will hear about those in the coming months,” Ishii assures. “I had a long world tour for my anniversary of my solo career last year with twenty countries and over forty-five shows. I'm focusing on production works now, though.”

It's an exciting prospect. Ishii has never developed any rust as a producer. By the time instrumental hip hop became the vogue in the late-'90s, Ishii had already segued out of the genre and into more idiosyncratic sounds. Albums like Zen (2001) and The Message And The Depth (2002) incorporated everything from cold, fractured electronics to indigenous Japanese music and off-kilter jazz. It's hard to know what Ishii's next album will provide.

“I'm always thinking and feeling that my music doesn't really fall into any category. My music genre is 'DJ Krush',” Ishii says of his direction and processes. “First, I imagine the visuals in my head; then I translate the picture and put it down to sounds, basically. But it varies. I want try to collaborate with more classical music composers and musicians like orchestras.

“I'm playing many of my unreleased new/original tracks live these days and will play them in Australia at the upcoming shows. So, I hope the audience will feel and appreciate some new DJ Krush material,” the producer says. “I'm very excited to return to Australia. I always enjoy performing and having a wonderful time at Australia.”   

DJ Krush will be playing the following dates:

Friday 19 April - Coniston Lane, Brisbane QLD