DJ Krush: Zen : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Still keeping it real from real far, Japan's DJ Krush returns with his fifth album in as many years on as many labels. Known for layering ambient textures, drunken trumpets and abstract breaks over moaning acoustic bass, Krush has added a degree of song structure to his repertoire on Zen. His "solo" albums have featured as many top-notch international collaborations as Funkmaster Flex has premier underground U.S. freestyles, and Zen is no exception. Voices lent to Krush's productions this go round include the Roots' Black Thought, Brussels-based world-fusion singers Zap Mama, and Queens' late, great Company Flow crew. What separates Zen from Krush sides such as Milight isn't so much the vocal element as the beats, which are more dream-like than drugged-out. The jazz-touched, downtempo beats -- which approach U.K. garage structure on "Sonic Traveler" and electro-battle bounce on "Duck Chase" -- flutter through the air, rather than fall heavily in to a somnambulist state. Zen is rife with head bobbing hip-hop that enlightens, even if it rarely invigorates.

TONY WARE
(August 6, 2001)