Sendai, Japan-based turntablist DJ Kentaro has certainly had an eventful last few years, having returned following his reigning third place during the 2001 World DMC Championships to claim the top slot and a perfect competition score during the same awards during 2002. Dedicating his winning six minute set to his personal philosophy of “no walls between the music”, Kentaro’s hyper-frenetic blend of hiphop, breaks, abstract beats and drum and bass essentially reflected his own ongoing desire to explore music by sheer ‘feel’ rather than be constrained by pigeonholes or genre-related expectations. With his burgeoning reputation as a jaw-droppingly dexterous showman being further built upon by tours throughout his native Japan during 2003 with The Roots, Pharcyde and fellow Sendai artists Gagle, more recent live appearances have seen Kentaro increasingly taking advantage of DVD-deck technology to incorporate visual elements as yet another ingredient to be sliced, diced and ‘visuscratched.’

When the Ninja Tune crew originally approached Kentaro and asked him if he would be interested in compiling the latest volume in their ongoing Solid Steel series, the initial plan was that the release be confined to the Japanese market only. Thankfully the Ninjas relented, and Kentaro’s furious drum and bass-infused turntablist mash through the Ninja Tunes backcatalogue will now reach a much wider audience – complete with a bonus DVD allowing afficionados the opportunity to check out the man in hyperspeed action – complete with judicious use of the ‘frame’ button. ITM’s evilchris chatted to Kentaro (via translator) about his thoughts on working with Ninja Tune, the importance of ‘no walls between the music’ and his increasing use of visuals.

ITM: I understand that one of the most important principles that you adhere to when creating your DJ sets is ‘no walls between the music.’ How did this attitude develop and how does it manifest itself in your music?

Kentaro: My roots are in hip-hop, but I’ve been listening to every kind of music, like reggae, house, drum n bass, and what I’ve been listening to was all influencing and led me to the attitude, ‘no walls between the music.’ It became my total personality. I’m just being real honest to myself, I think. Honesty is another word for NWBM. Music is the feelings, so that is I think the way the music should be loved. The life. No Music, no life.

ITM: What sorts of musical influences inspired / encouraged you to first start exploring scratching / DJing? Were these influences initially primarily hiphop-oriented?

Kentaro: Yeah – my very first influences were hip-hop oriented, I was 12 or 13 years old. Wu-Tang, Redman, Beastie Boys.

ITM: Your home area of Sendai certainly seems to be a hotbed of creative activity, with the likes of DJ Mitsu The Beats and Gagle also creating hiphop there; what is Sendai like to live and work in as a creative environment?

Kentaro: Oh yeah! DJ Mitsu the beats and Gagle are my boys, we grew up together in the musical way, we used to practice scratching and juggling together and it is very awesome that very good friends of mine, especially boys who I know real well, are getting out there to the universe, I’m very glad this has gotten to the level in our own, original ways. Sendai, the scene is very original and everybody has got very deep and hot feelings on music. People are really warm, but very serious on music.

ITM: You certainly have a huge number of live and festival appearances under your belt, including playing at Fuji Rock in Naeba this year and opening for Afrika Bambaataa – are there any particular favourite highlights out of the countless shows you’ve done?

Kentaro: The most recent one, I went and played at this festival in Shikoku Island in Japan, Kochi city two days ago. DJ Mitsu The Beats and Gagle were also performing. This festival was great, was not that big like Fuji Rock, but it was very homey and there were many beautiful people. I met this band called Little Tempo, they are group of nine, including steel pans, it was just so groovy. I jumped into their set and did some cuts for them! It was really different.

ITM: What events lead you to make contact with Ninja Tune and resulted in your compiling a volume of their ongoing Solid Steel series? Were there any particular priorities you had in mind when you initially thought about doing this project?

Kentaro: It was my favorite label and it is still my favorite label, what I like about them is that they are very genre-less, I think I’m kinda like that. They are sorta like a “No wall label”, the core is really hip-hop, like my core is, and they are very, very musical and artistic, and a very warm label, a really creative group of people lined up. Yeah, I am very excited to work with them for other future projects.

ITM: ‘DJ Kentaro On The Wheels Of Solid Steel’ was originally released last December as a Japan-only release. How has the response been to this Ninja Tunes mix in your native Japan?

Kentaro: We’ve gotten really good feedback, many good responses from many different fields, like a good friend of mine told me that he always listens to my mix before he goes to work, he says that my mix hypes him up in the morning. Seems that everyone’s liking my Solid Steel mix, so I hope it’ll be the same for the rest of the world!

ITM: You incorporate visual elements and ‘visuscratching’ in your DJ sets through the use of DVD ‘decks’; how would you describe this combination in practice when playing out?

Kentaro: I just liked it, so I just kinda thought how it would be if I use this in my live show. It’s still a testing point, I tended to go more on the audio, but also I’d like to go with the visual as well, so I’m working with my visual crew VJ Gec Tokyo on the graphics with my beats as well.

ITM: ‘Solid Steel Presents DJ Kentaro On The Wheels Of Solid Steel’ comes with a DVD section containing live footage and animations; what sorts of things were you particularly keen to do when developing this DVD?

Kentaro: I am a turntablist, so I wanted people to know me not just from the sound of the CD, but I wanted people to see what I am doing when I create music by using turntables. And our graphic/visual people Easeback found a very good illustrator, so we put his animation onto the DVD to describe my beats from the intro part of the CD.

ITM: Apart from notable high-profile artists such as DJ Krush, Major Force, Yas and a few others, it seems as though a large portion of Japanese hiphop artists don’t really receive distribution here in Australia, with their records difficult to source locally. Are there any particular artists that you rate highly that we should be looking out for?

Kentaro: Gagle, DJ Mitsu The Beats, and HIFANA who just released a very very high quality full album last week, it’s comes with a DVD that includes 13 music videos from the album! It’s just amazing, also Little Tempo, who are a dub band.

ITM: You’ve certainly toured widely over the last few years, performing both within Japan and around the world. Do you have any plans to visit us in Australia in the foreseeable future?

Kentaro: I’ve had a few offers from Australia before, but they never happened with my schedule so full. Australia is the next spot I’d love to go because there are so many great artists from Australia, I want to see the country where creative awesome artists are from. That is why I want to go there so badly!

DJ Kentaro’s Solid Steel mix is out now through Ninja Tune/Inertia. Check out http://www.ninjatune.net for more info.