Quite a crowd was converged on the Crown & Sceptre, obviously excited by the prospect of witnessing the turntable stylings of DJ Kentaro. Crowned the 2002 DMC/Technics World Champion, Kentaro created a stir throughout the hip hop and dance world due to his highly polished turntablist style and lighting fast hands on the wheels of steel. As soon as Kentaro stepped up to the decks, throngs of people filled the room in eager anticipation. He began by scratching up some catchy and familiar party tunes, all mixed in with an oriental flavour. After a couple of minutes Kentaro had the crowd psyched and chanting, before jumping into a showcase of turntablist mayhem the likes of which I have never seen before.

The multiple video cameras to the sides of Kentaro ably captured all that was taking place on stage, giving the audience a bird’s eye view. The visuals added to the understanding of what a capable performer Kentaro is, his hands darting from the mixer to turntable and back in little more than a blur. The live visuals were cut in with animation that, at times, looked like Monty Python on acid. There were images of people jumping off dollar bills and falling through clouds into psychedelic spirals of blue. The visuals were seamlessly synced to the audio, so the overall effect was spectacular.

While cranking out crowd pleasers from the likes of Grand Master Flash, Kentaro added his own personal beats through tweaking, mixing and scratching. His speed and technique was mind blowing. At one stage he was even scratching behind his back. It truly was incredible stuff! There was a nice blend of funky dub and housey electro, but jaw shattering drum & bass dominated the evening, and that was just what the crowd was after. When Kentaro pulled out Pendulum’s ‘Tarantula’ the energy levels skyrocketed, with everyone pounding the floor and punching their fists in the air. Most people on the dancefloor did not stop moving for the entire set, a good sign that a DJ knows how to please his fans.

Playing for a bit over an hour, Kentaro left the stage only to return for an encore after it was made abundantly clear that the crowd wanted more. He pulled out some classics (Prodigy), which was very well received, then topped it all off with some experimental trip hop. Kentaro’s mastery lies not simply in technique, but in the overall sense of performance. From the diverse selection of tunes to the psychedelic-and-synced visuals, it was made abundantly clear that this was not just a DJ spinning tunes; this was a performance showcase that was damn stimulating… both visually and aurally!