"BRING THE BEAT" VOL. 2

KOR-1, PRODUCER OF THE TEMPLE ATS MIX CD "STANDING ON THE MOON" AND VARIOUS WORKS FROM THE TEMPLE ATS LABEL, HAS COMBINED WITH SAN DIEGO TURNTABLIST AND CREATOR OF THE TEMPLE ATS MIX CD "KOUTEN", TO CREATE THE DUO "MEMORYSTORM", WHICH WILL RELEASE THEIR ALBUM IN APRIL.

Disk:               Congratulations on the completion of your album.  Well, since your bios and profiles are already out there, could I have you tell us what your first encounters with hip hop were like?  Along what lines in music have brought you to this point?

KOR-1:             Hmm…let's see.  Well first off, in my junior high school days I really liked Jamiroquai.  Then Jay-Kay, a member of the group, released this compilation album that I picked up.  On it was Nas' "The World Is Yours" and Kurious' "I'm Kurious".  That was my first encounter with hip hop.  Then, in a magazine interview he was talking about his musical influences.  He mentioned Sly & The Family Stone, Parliament, Stevie Wonder.  I went out and bought a CD from each of those artists.  At the same time, Spike Lee's "Crooklyn" came out.  There was hip hop on the soundtrack as well. 

(looks at Dj Psi Kick) I lent the CD to you right?

Dj Psi Kick:    Yeah, I have it.  Here we go. (Takes out the CD)

                        There's some good songs on there.

KOR-1:           It's like a standard collection of black music, so to speak.  Orthodox you could say.  There's a lot of stuff on there.

Disk:               There's a song on there that Q-Tip produced, isn't there?

KOR-1:           Yeah, "Crooklyn Dodgers".  Special Ed, Masta Ace, Black Moon, and Buckshot.  I listened to that soundtrack a lot.

Disk:               That was around '93 or '94 wasn't it?  All the heads in their prime.  I was pretty much listening to the same stuff.  After that Nas, Wu-Tang's debut, Boot Camp, plus some Japanese rap.

KOR-1:           Yeah.  But for me interest in hip hop really began after I bought a turntable.  Then, I started buying records.  But when I really felt the vibe of the culture was when I saw DJ Honda on TV. (laughs)  At the time he was rockin' two copies of "Good Times".  I thought "Damn, that's dope…"

Dj Psi Kick:    Superman was it called?  New Music Seminar?"

KOR-1:           New Music Seminar I think.  That's when I first learned about scratching.  It was around '95 or '96.  Then I got really deep into hip hop.  De La Soul, Tribe's fourth release.  I was all into it.

My hometown is next to a town called  Tsuchiura in Ibaraki.  On the way to my high school there's this record store called Ambush Records.  The famous DJs in the area would all go there.  In that store they played a lot of soul, jazz, and "rare groove".  Once I started talking to one of the store clerks I started digging for rare groove and free soul.

Disk:               Wow, that's early.  And it's not like you went from hip hop to sample collecting.

KOR-1:           I guess you could say that I started early.  But the peak of rare groove I think was around Soul II Soul, Jazzy B.  About early '90s, I think.  So I think it started after that.

                        But the term 'sample collecting' doesn't really strike a chord with me.  For example, you might affiliate Gil Scott Heron, The Jackson Sisters, and Weldon Irvine with Gang Starr, but I absorbed both worlds in parallel.

                        I guess what you can say brought me to where I am now is…well…I keep going in circles here…I guess I just walked along various musical paths.  Basically my core is hip hop.  But if I were to go with my gut feeling, it might be different.  If it were 30 years ago, I would definitely be doing funk.  But the MemoryStorm project we are doing right now definitely feeds off my interest in house.  I guess in a way I  might be able to say it's my version of contemporary music.

Disk:               Hmm…I see what you're saying.  The album can be ingested in that way.  It leaves an impression of freedom on the listener.

KOR-1:           Also, my meeting with fellow TempleATS member DJ Tarzan has a big influence on me.  He used to rap and b-boy as well.  We used to DJ at this jazz bar together.  He'd play all genres of music, and not just the lead cut but the B-side as well.  He showed me how to buy records…that we don't always need to stick to the rules.  We're the same age but he's my senpai.

Disk:               OK, continuing on with Dj Psi Kick.  Could you give us some background info?

Dj Psi Kick:    Until the time I was five years old I was living on an American base in Japan.  At the time, my older brother was breakdancing to "Planet Rock", electro.  I think that was my first encounter with hip hop.  Next, I moved to California, and I can remember listening to this song by MC Shy-D with that sample from "Brazilian Rhyme" in it.  Also, in my childhood I listened to a lot of gangster rap.  Ice-T, N.W.A, Ice Cube, from Ice Cube to Public Enemy.  Then I got into B-boy'ing.  In my second year of high school I started DJ'ing.  I was already listening to Souls of Mischief, Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Group Home.  I was DJ'ing parties with my friends as a mobile DJ crew.  Then, after I graduated high school I started getting into battles.  While I was in college, I held my own college radio show.  At the same time, me and my friends formed an underground rap group, and we released a 12" EP.  I was listening to Octagon, Automator, etc. at the time.

KOR-1:           What's the name of that record?

Dj Psi Kick:    Unknown Entity, "The Positive/Negative Effects EP"

Disk:               Dj Psi Kick, you make tracks as well right.  With this project, do you take any role on the track-making side, or are you strictly scratching?

KOR-1:           I'm  MPC.  Jeff (Dj Psi Kick) is scratching.  That aspect doesn't change, but concerning the process it's a two-man effort.  For example, the bass lines, background sounds, melodies, we go about making the music together while exchanging opinions.

Dj Psi Kick:    Sometimes I'll give my opinion and say something like, "If this beat had more sway to it, I think it would be better," or something like that.  I'll be in the front, or scratching a melody, or playing the background.  When we perform together we can place ourselves in various positions.

Disk:               Performances.  When I listened to the album I got the impression that the music wasn't a "produced" work.  Like a live recording, you might say.  When I close my eyes, I can imagine footage of you two performing, having a session.  The beat that comes through just moves you.  I guess it's because you guys have that influence from doing live shows?

Dj Psi Kick:    Thanks, I'm glad to hear you say that. (looks at KOR-1)

                        But we made songs for the live show and the album pretty much at the same time, didn't we?

KOR-1:           Yeah, basically when we make a song it's also for use at the shows.  But when we perform, we do what feels natural, what comes to mind at that point.  When we record, it's at the same intensity as when we practice.

Dj Psi Kick:    When we perform at shows we have fun, doing lots of stuff.  When we each go home, we'll take the song and try to add stuff.  Then when we meet up we try to make use of what we discovered.

Disk:               Kaori (KOR-1) on the one side and Jeff on the other.  It has a movie-like image to it.  It's really raw.

Dj Psi Kick:    There are a lot of acts out there where they're live shows are different from what's on the recordings, but we're putting out what we do at the shows.

KOR-1:           First off, we can completely recreate the album songs when we perform.  For example, you have The Roots, which are a live band.  Though I think that type of hip hop performance is really great, performing with an MPC and turntable we are exhibiting something like no other.  That's something I think we can brag about.

Disk:               It's actually a four-beat track, but with it there is definitely a feel of hip hop.  Also, there's something that I wanted to ask you Kaori.  When it comes to a four beat, it succeeds with that one-beat pattern, right? "Dun dun dun dun".  Where as with the two bar breakbeat there is a different groove that develops from the creation process, don't you think?  Excuse the weird question…

KOR-1:           Well for me, when it comes to the creation of what we call "hip hop" or "house", I don't make music with that point of view.  For example, if I were to start with a kick, I imagine what can go around it, and I increase the amount of sounds surrounding it.  And then Jeff will place his cuts somewhere.  The structure of the track gets formed from the groove that we create.

Dj Psi Kick:    What's that?  Is he asking about how we make the tracks?

Disk:               Well, it might be a frequent habit of the Japanese B-boy, but there is a certain, crystallized way of seeing things. Well, recently groups like Sa-Ra are doing new stuff, but people like Premier have that beat that starts off with a kick, going "Boom boom bap da da boom bap".  Maybe that's the methodology of making funk.  I was thinking it was different from the four beat pattern.

KOR-1:           Hmm..I guess you could say it's a difference in the syncopation.  The hat, kick.  But whether it's hip hop or house, there are a lot of patterns. 

Dj Psi Kick:    At that point it's all about feeling.

KOR-1:           Yeah.  From my experience, the type of drum used can totally change the way a song is made too.  For example, we start out making breakbeat hip hop, and it ends up turning into house.

Disk:               With a sense of freedom and no genre, I guess it can be regarded as a work without clichés.  I don't really get the feeling that you two have influence from anyone.  Even looking at it from the creation side it's easy to visualize what you're doing, with breakbeats, etc.

KOR-1:           Yeah, well about influences…

Dj Psi Kick:    We probably have influence from the music we like.  But it might be because the two of us work on the track together, but even when we visualize or conceptualize a track there are a lot of times it doesn't end up the way we originally envisioned it.  We just disassociate it from the result.

Disk:               By the way, was there a concept for the album?

KOR-1:           Depending on the song there is a different concept.  We visualize it in our heads, and in a free, fuzzy kind of way it kind of develops.  (laughs)

Disk:               In that light, the second track on the album "Sunset Cliffs" is really dope.  It's not even house, or breakbeats?  The climax of the track is really cool.  I want to feel the satisfaction of hearing it on vinyl.  You've gotta have an analog release!

KOR-1:           Yeah, I want to as well.  Yeah, we're gonna do it.

Dj Psi Kick:    With that track we started with a low bass line that goes "boooooooon", and visualized other sounds from that.  At first I imagined artists like Dwele, or Slum Village, and started from there.

KOR-1:           Yeah, at first it had a mellow, abstract flavor.  Then the chord progression I brought into it, plus the melding of Jeff's positive vibes from the sounds he added made an addictive, but chilled out vibe.  But to speak more in detail, between the lows and highs of the kick and hat I inserted a breakbeat rhythm, and in separate areas the sounds play out.  But after the mix down, it came out sounding real dope.  With those kinds of things we challenge ourselves and enjoy the process.  Hmm..it's probably not so much the artists that we got our influences from but the combination of all the music we've been influenced by up to this point.  The pattern of the drums and stuff.  There's insipiration from our imaginations as well.

Disk:               Well, as a turntablist, Jeff you must get your hands on all kinds of records. Plus your musical biography is great.  And Kaori, for how many years, you were working in the jazz/rare groove section at Disk Union in Shibuya.  You've accumulated a massive amount of knowledge about records.  Without a doubt, between the two of you that's a large base of information.

Dj Psi Kick:    But we fill in the gaps in places where each other are lacking I think.

KOR-1:           It might be difficult to understand, but within a song we pass the same sound to each other.  The pianist in the song will be me, then it will be him.  That type of technique is something that we work out together too.  Something I think maybe no one else does.

Disk:               Are you getting any stimulus from any other artists lately?

KOR-1:           Yeah man, there's plenty.  Right around the time we were making the album I was listening to Detroit house.  Stuff from Moodyman, Mike Grant, Rick Wade.  I think their style of making music is definitely B-boy.

Disk:               What do you think about Spinna?

KOR-1:           I was listening to him a while back.  When he debuted with "Beyond Real".  He gradually became famous and was getting a lot of remix work from people.  I really dug him in those days.  I might not have that much influence from him, but the time he did the De La "Stakes is High" remix, I thought "Man, this is flawless".

Disk:               Yeah, he had a lot of work coming his way at the time.  All of it was dope, too.  There's a Spinna remix of MC Eiht that's only out on promo.  Man, I was looking for that.  Shit, I've gone off topic here.  So, how's hip hop these days?  The sounds Jeff's playing from his speakers right now gives me a feeling he listens to a lot of hip hop.

KOR-1:           Well, to ask you the same question, what is out there these days?

Disk:               Hmm…hard question.  Yeah there's a lot out there.  Q-Tip's new album, Pete Rock.  I'll listen to anything.  I like south too.  Did you hear Snoop Dogg's latest?

KOR-1:           Yeah, I did.  Shit's cool.  It has an electro feel to it.  Also, I think it came out last year, vinyl from Modaji and Maspyke.  I thought they were really dope.  I was blown away. 

Disk:               Ahh, I think I see what vibe, or groove you're on.  It makes a connection with Modaji somehow.  He went from the house field to jazz/crossover too.

KOR-1:           Ahh, I'm happy to hear you say that.

Here we talked about Erykah Badu's new album, and for a while

discussed other topics.

In the sample I received, the song featuring Chiyori, "Shooting

Stars" had not yet been completed.  (She is also going to appear

on Shing02's new album.)  I asked them if I could have a listen.

KOR-1:           Seriously, this new album by Erykah Badu is dope.  "My People" is really cool!  Sa-Ra's track is flawless.  Madlib's drums are insane.

Disk:               "Shooting Stars" has some length to it I think.  I might be able to say this about all the songs on the album, but the climaxes are really fresh.  But although it was a vocal track, I couldn't really see what was coming.  It was a thrill.

KOR-1:           Thank you very much.

Disk:               Listening to the both of you talk, I get the impression that each of you are moving freely, not fastened to the same place.  I wonder what the next project will be like?  Excuse me if it's too soon to be asking. 

Dj Psi Kick:    Hmm…I really haven't been thinking about it.  But I think maybe I have a little.  On the technical side and stuff.

KOR-1:           Well, at this point in time, I can't really picture what it would be like.  But even when we perform, a lot of ideas come out.  But with this release, we've combined all our musical experiences that we've had up to now.  But when the time comes to start the next project, I think we'll be ready to seek new challenges.

Dj Psi Kick:    If we don't, it just gets boring, you know?  Work with some musicians who play instruments.  Sound like fun.  But maybe we won't.  Just the two of us?

Disk:               That has a jazz session type of vibe, doesn't it?  That would definitely be interesting.

                         Thanks so much for your time.