Japanese turntablist and producer DJ Krush is one of the few island-nation artists to be embraced by the global hip-hop world. Releasing material through Sony in Japan, Mo'Wax and Virgin in the U.K., and Axiom, Shadow, and A&M in America, Krush's heady brand of experimental, (largely) instrumental hip-hop has been praised by everyone from hardcore underground hip-hop 'zines like The Bomb to the speckless offices of Rolling Stone and Spin. Windows 7 fonts location. Beginning as a bedroom DJ in the mid-'80s following the Japanese leg of the Wild Style tour, Krush moved into mobile DJ'ing, backing up rappers, and eventually solo production.

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Although his 1994 debut, Krush (initially released only in Japan), freely mixed elements of R&B and acid jazz with the beefy breakbeat backbone of midtempo hip-hop, Krush's work has since tended more toward the abstract, applying heavy effects and sample manipulation to thick, smart breaks, layered, almost ambient textures, and subtle, inventive scratching. Following Krush and Bad Brothers (a 1994 collaborative EP with acid jazz artist Ronny Jordan), Krush came to larger acclaim in the mid-'90s through his association with the London-based Mo'Wax label, which released his Strictly Turntablized in 1994 and Meiso in 1995, both reissued stateside by A&M. While Turntablized is closer to a collection of DJ tools, Meiso is a return of sorts to his earlier work, including rappers such as Guru and CL Smooth on a few tracks and incorporating a wider variety of instrumental sounds and atmospheres.

The album also included the jaw-dropping nine-minute epic 'Duality,' which helped bring greater recognition to its guest artist, a young Californian by the name of DJ Shadow. Krush's profile in the jazz world was increased with the 1996 album Ki-Oku, a collaboration with avant-garde trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. He also contributed a 60-minute mix of the Ninja Tune back catalog to Cold Krush Cuts, a 1996 release with Coldcut and DJ Food. A mix retrospective called Holonic: The Self-Megamix appeared in 1997. In addition to 1997's Milight, which included guest appearances by Mos Def and DJ Cam, Krush also featured on a number of various-artists collections, including Mo'Wax's celebrated Headz, as well as Altered Beats and Axiom Dub (both out on Bill Laswell's Axiom label).

In 1998, Krush formed a trio called RYU with fellow Japanese hip-hop artists DJ Hide and DJ Sak, and the group released the album GA in 1999. Kakusei appeared on Mo'Wax/Columbia that year, followed by the mix album Code 4109 and single 'Tragicomic' the next year.

Zen from 2001 was filled with guest MCs and singers ranging from El-P and Mr. Len to Zap Mama and N'Dea Davenport, while The Message at the Depth from 2002 featured fewer vocalists (including Anti-Pop Consortium as well as the unrelated collective Anticon) and more instrumentals. Jaku (featuring guest MCs Mr.

Lif and Aesop Rock) landed in 2004, and two years later the Stepping Stones collection featured Krush remixing highlights from his back catalog. The album was released as a double-CD collection with one disc focusing on 'Lyricism' and the other on 'Soundscapes,' and both discs were released individually as well. A mix CD called OuMuPo 6 also appeared in 2006, and a triple-DVD Krush retrospective was released in Japan in 2007.

Following these retrospective releases, Krush took a long break from releasing music. During this time, he scored a 2009 animated film called First Squad and took part in Bill Laswell's ongoing Method of Defiance project, performing with them at the Montreux Jazz Festival and appearing on their 2010 album, Incunabula. Krush celebrated the 20th anniversary of his solo career in 2011 with a commemorative concert in Tokyo. He also resumed his release schedule with a monthly series of digital singles issued by his own Es.U.Es Corporation. A few vinyl EPs containing tracks from the series were released in 2012.

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Krush continued working with Laswell, appearing on MoD's 2013 album Nahariama, and both individuals released a collaborative single, 'Shuen,' in 2014. Butterfly Effect, Krush's first proper solo album in over a decade, finally appeared in October of 2015. Two years later, on the 25th anniversary of his solo career, Krush issued Kiseki, a straightforward rap album featuring Japanese MCs like Rino Latina II, OMSB, 5lack, and more. Sean Cooper. Having won a deserved underground reputation, DJ Krush was able to take things to a higher plane with his excellent Meiso album, featuring another range of strong collaborations to help him carry out his mission of creativity with the turntables. Kicking off with the excellent 'Only the Strong Survive,' featuring C.L. Smooth, Meiso resembles Krush in that shorter bridge tracks crop up between longer songs, all flowing together just so.

His overall approach remains unchanged: low, mid- to slow-tempo grooves and breaks, with varying low bass tones, touching on everything from jazz and funk to experimental ambient production. The album's mood is at once reflective and edgy, always threatening to get vicious just around the corner. Highlights of his strictly solo tracks include 'What's Behind Darkness?' And the deceptively gentle 'Blank.' Most of Krush's collaborators this time around are on the vocal tip; musically, the real winner comes with the astonishing 'Duality.'

This track is a full partnership with the equally well-ranked DJ Shadow; one can easily tell when the latter takes over the drum programming for the tune, with a shimmering darkness cascading down. Vocally, both Black Thought and Malik B. Of the Roots take a spin with the tight grooving title track, getting in some wonderfully playful rhymes playing off Krush's Japanese background while the man himself shows some smart scratching flash.

Deflon Sallahr of Hedrush kicks down with a confrontational effort on 'Ground,' while a more than logical fellow traveler in jazz and hip-hop, the legendary Guru, works out the music with Krush as Big Shug delivers a bold gangsta rap on 'Most Wanted Man.' Ned Raggett. In the world of independent hip-hop, artists either trailblaze like Quasimoto and El-P or salute their forebears like Blackalicious and Jurassic 5. Japanese breaks maestro DJ Krush is a curious exception to the rule; he seems virtually unaffected by trends yet encompasses many of them in his productions, and offers something different with virtually each release.

Similar to lauded underground labels from Def Jux to Big Dada, The Message at the Depth is underground rap for the digital age, far removed from the moldy crates and dusty beats of Krush's Mo' Wax classic Strictly Turntablized. His beats are digital, heavily resampled and quantized, splintering off like drum'n'bass patterns but possessing a depth and clarity not seen since the heyday of Massive Attack.

And with far fewer collaborations here than on his last record, Zen, there's more room to hear Krush at his best. A pair of instrumentals, the dark breaks symphonies 'Sanity Requiem' and 'The Blackhole,' fare much better than the high-profile vocal features for Antipop Consortium and Anticon, which add surprisingly little to the proceedings. Anticon's collaboration, the stoner nightmare 'Song for John Walker,' is a sub-Cannibal Ox performance; even DJ Krush can't put together a production to make them sound relevant. The best rapping comes from Japanese MC Inden, who gets his point across on 'Toki No Tabiji (Journey of Time)' without needing to resort to English.

'But the World Moves On' is the only track to look back to the same grooves heard on Zen, with bassist D-Madness and alto Masato Nakamura helping Krush conjure a dark Asiatic vibe. Butterfly Effect is Japanese hip-hop pioneer DJ Krush's first full-length in over a decade, and it finds the 53-year-old DJ/producer aging gracefully. Here, his music sounds lusher and more cinematic than ever, with pianos and horns reverberating through the spacious productions.

Everything sounds clean and considered; the breakbeats are sparse and precise rather than cluttered and dusty. One gets the feeling that this music is primed for large concert halls and high-definition auditoriums rather than seedy hip-hop clubs with blown-out speakers. Some of the beats seem to nod slightly to contemporary production styles such as trap, but it almost seems coincidental if there's anything trendy about what he's doing; he's far more concerned with gazing inward and pondering the future than trying to sound hip. Most of the album consists of moody downtempo instrumentals, but a few MCs up the tension a bit. The most well-known guest is left-field rap veteran Divine Styler, who adds high-speed scientific-themed raps to 'Everything and Nothing.' Crosby Bolani's reggae-leaning 'Sbay One' discusses gun violence and apartheid, and pleads for strength and unity in order to build a nation as one. 'Living in the Future' reunites Krush with longtime collaborator Boss the MC, who restlessly spits out lyrics in Japanese.

Much sparser is 'My Light' (which nearly shares its title with Krush's 1997 full-length), a sultry trip-hop number featuring simple lyrics about self-ownership by Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan. As skillful as Krush is when manning the boards behind vocalists, some of the album's best moments are his solo productions, such as the bumping piano-drift 'Future Correction,' the dubby 'Song of the Haze,' and the shimmering, resounding 'Coruscation.' Krush's scope is as wide as it's ever been, and Butterfly Effect's best moments are a nice reminder of why he's such a master at what he does. Paul Simpson.