Friday - February 11th, 2005
Club Karma, Osaka, Japan

The month of March is a special time for the lovely folks of Miami Beach. It’s because the Winter Music Conference (WMC) comes to town and brings with it superstar DJs from across the globe. In case you are not familiar with the WMC it is a time when DJ’s, musicians, producers, and people throughout the music industry attend a conference, which is held in Miami, to discuss recent issues within the world of music. But throughout the years the WMC has become synonymous with a week of amazing DJs coming to Miami and showing the crowd why they have become famous in the first place. To jump start the festivities, a huge outdoor event called the Ultra Music Festival is usually held, where all different types of electronic music can be heard. What do I mean by different types of music?

Within the world of electronic music there are many different genres. There is Trance, DJs like Paul Van Dyk and Sasha; Hip-Hop, such as DJ Shadow and (Miami local) DJ Swing; House, like Moby and The Chemical Brothers, and so on. There is also one other genre which is quite new to the world of electronic music, well, new to electronic music in the United States. This particular genre is called drum and bass. Drum and Bass originated during the mid to early 90’s in England, and since then has taken the world by storm. One record label in particular has changed the way the world views this music genre, and it is called Good Looking Records. One of the main contributors to this musical revolution is LTJ Bukem, founder of the Good Looking Records label. His take on Drum and Bass has caught the ears of listeners from the underground DJ circles of New York all the way to the streets of London.

When living in Miami, I attended many Ultra Music Festivals wherein a large number of drum and bass DJs have played, but I never understood why this type of music had generated such hype around the world. The only time I was able to see drum and bass music played was when I would attend a trance or house show, and too many people would pack the dance floor. To escape the almost suffocating, over-crowded room, I would go to another room within the club to relax and have a beer. In the other room there was often a drum and bass DJ spinning his set, but with little or no attention from the crowd before him. It was at this time I realized that if I want to learn more about this genre of music, it is imperative that I travel to a place where this music has more of a following. This curiosity brought me to Club Karma in the heart of Osaka, Japan. What exactly is drum and bass anyway?

The biggest difference between normal music heard everyday and drum and bass is the beats per minute (BPM). For example, one of Eminem’s most recent songs, Just Lose It, sounds extremely fast with its 121 beats per minute, and compared to most songs it is rather fast. But when you compare that with drum and bass songs of over 160 beats per minute it’s almost like comparing the old man walking in the park with Carl Lewis. In Japan, drum and bass does have a hero, and its LTJ Bukem’s label, Good Looking Records, that has him signed. Tokyo based Makoto Shimizu, a.k.a. DJ Makoto, was an acoustic engineering major in college, and teamed up with LTJ Bukem and his posse in early 1998, and has since then produced many tracks for the famous ‘Earth’ compilation albums, the ‘Progression Sessions’ mix albums (where other people spin his music), and his own full length 2003 release, ‘Human Elements’. He is also the only Japan-based artist to have two ‘Progression Sessions’ albums where he mixes other peoples music. Overall, DJ Makoto has undoubtedly made the largest contribution to the drum and bass scene in Japan than any other single artist.

In early February, I had the chance to witness first hand what all the hype was about. It was very different from a show in Miami to say the least. The venue, Club Karma, is a coffee shop/restaurant that becomes a nightclub after dark. So it seemed a bit weird to have a drum and bass show in such a small venue, but the lovely Ms. Chizuru assured me that there was plenty of space. I returned to Club Karma before DJ Makoto’s set, and to my surprise they had opened up another room which looked like a closet from the outside, but was actually a huge open-area room with a DJ booth and dance floor. When Makoto arrived, the club was quite empty, and the people that were present were dancing, but it felt like what I had seen in Miami, and this was the main room. Soon after Makoto started his set, people started to trickle in. After 10 minutes, the place started to get a bit crowded, and by the time he went into his original composition, So Free, the room was packed with people dancing to every beat. People were dancing with their eyes closed and just bouncing around. It felt free and beautiful all at the same time. To witness Makoto on stage is to witness the power a DJ can have over his or her audience. The crowd was on his every beat; when he would stop the record or slow it down, they would instantly react. It was as if someone was letting you breathe, squeezing your wind-pipe, and then letting you breathe again. There were not many visuals to enhance his performance, but you could tell the other DJs were watching closely. Actually, there were about five other DJs behind the booth who seemed to be studying his technique. By the end of his set, Club Karma was packed with people who looked like they had just finished about two hours of Tae-bo. The smell of sweat and loss of breath was all that seemed to remain, but everyone had huge smiles on their faces.

After the show, DJ Makoto gave me a few minutes of his time for some pictures and an interview. He explained to me how he first got into drum and bass music. Makoto has been listening to music his entire life, but before drum and bass he was big into artists like Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and Leroy Hudson. It wasn’t until he saw a Progression Sessions show that he came across drum and bass. After seeing the energy put out by LTJ Bukem, Makoto knew this was the kind of music he wanted to create, so he sent a demo to LTJ Bukem himself. According to the Good Looking Records website, Makoto recalls how his relationship with Bukem began, “I sent a demo to Good Looking and got a reply back from Bukem straight away. He told me to make the beat less frantic and to make changes to the arrangement. I was really pleased about it, and I felt like I was dreaming. We then started to contact each other and discuss my music. This led me to signing to Good Looking.” Makoto has also played shows across America, even in Miami. When I mentioned the WMC to him he knew exactly what I was talking about. He has never played the WMC, but he definitely hopes to someday. After talking with Makoto, I got the impression he is very passionate about his music. Some people think that DJ’s just spin other people’s music, and that is all they do. In Makoto’s case, he produces as well as spins, and with his knowledge of Jazz and other genres of music he definitely has an advantage over other DJs within and outside of the drum and bass genre.

If this music has such an impact in other parts of the world, why hasn’t Miami been able to feel it yet? The answer to that question remains to be seen, but the best thing about drum and bass is that it has no rules. There are no guidelines to follow because no one has made any yet. Everything is a free for all, and most other genres do not possess such freedom in their music. Thanks to pioneers such as Roni Size and his crew, Fabio and Grooverider, all of the amazing people at Good Looking Records, and all of the other tremendously talented, brave souls that stuck with it from the beginning, people like me can go into any Tower Records around the world and pick up the latest cuts. You guys are heroes, and I thank you.