DJ Krush, Bowery Ballroom, NY

Some DJs perform by composing on the fly, creating new soundscapes from elemental pieces of many different samples. Other DJs like to show off their crate-digger bona fides by spinning rare records from the past. Some DJs rely on virtuosic turntablism. Still others explore the affinities of well-known songs through mash-ups. But DJ Krush is the only DJ I’ve ever seen do all of these things in the course of a single, epic, two-hour show.

Krush, a Japanese man in his late 40s, walks on stage in throwback hip-hop attire and bows to his audience. He begins the set with a dark, atmospheric mix of flute and bell sounds, building for a long time before even starting a breakbeat. But of course he finally gets around to one, much to the audience’s delight. He transitions into a section that focuses mainly on his own work and that of his kindred spirit and sometime-collaborator DJ Shadow. Laying down long stretches of Shadow’s ‘In/Flux’ and ‘Midnight In a Perfect World’, he seems to let them play mostly unadulterated. With his own pieces, however, he plays the adventurous turntablist a bit more vigorously, scratching and playing with the beats on cuts like ‘Shinjiro’ and an extended mix of ‘Kemuri’.

After this he switches up styles again, moving into a wide-ranging tour of early ‘90s hip hop - Mobb Deep, The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, and many others that are too obscure for me to place - though many in the crowd rap along with joy. Finally, as though to prove his mastery of all things DJ-related, Krush spins some lighthearted mash-ups, mixing Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’ with Michael Viner’s ‘Apache’ and Prince’s ‘Billie Jean’. In his encore, Krush even plays an instrumental version of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Before leaving, Krush bows again to his fans - and we said a silent word of thanks for globalization.