When is the best time for an artist to be retrospective about their work? In most cases, it’s usually linked to the impending close of a recording label contract, when a lazily packaged ‘greatest hits’ compilation falls into place in the absence of any new material. For some, it can be a chance to cast off the shackles of their previous work and progress into new creative territory without the baggage of expectation: the fans might covet a back catalogue with religious devotion, but it doesn’t mean the artist in question has to. DJ Krush has always been one to simultaneously look back whilst looking forwards. His devotion to catalogue his previous tours and performances with many being recorded on video for posterity show his passion for archiving what has gone before, and in contrast, for his 1997 album MiLight, a number of prominent members from hip hop culture such as Mos Def and Futura are given space to say what they feel the future will bring.

Over the past couple of decades, his has been a journey of playful discovery and refinement. At one stage playing a major part in the whole ‘Trip Hop’ movement (if such a thing ever existed), Krush moved on to darker and more malformed sounds which have meant his latter works contain beats that wouldn’t seem too out of place on the heavily alternative and lo-fi Anticon label. The lavish 3xDVD set Suimou Tsunenimau attempts to visually and aurally cover the long and winding path of Krush’s career up to the present.

Disc 1 (A-Un): Starting with the first disc, we get taken on a 45 minute ride through the A-Un documentary which covers the recording sessions for the 1997 album MiLight, as well as a few live performances filmed from roughly the same time. Certain key tracks from the album are featured (mostly those featuring guest MCs) such as ‘Real’, ‘Light (Can You See It?)’ and ‘Shin-Sekai’. The footage is mainly focused on MCs in the studio (Mos Def, Duro, Tragedy etc), which could be considered marginally more interesting than watching Krush cueing tracks or running practice cuts and scratches. An interesting touch is the inclusion of mini interviews with the MCs involved, where they are invited to talk about the future. These soundbites featured as interludes on MiLight, peppered between the ‘proper’ tracks and backed by pleasant instrumentals. It’s certainly interesting to see if you were a fan of the album and want to put faces to the names. The live performances vary from a close-knit club environment where the crowd are being treated to an early live rendition of ‘Kemuri’ to the festival stages of a size usually reserved for more traditional rock acts. Overall the footage on this disc is above average at best - this is understandable when you consider it was filmed some time ago, and mostly on camcorder. The transfer to digital format has been performed adequately, but does not match the quality of the audio track which is actually surprisingly good.

Disc 2 (Ko-no-Michi): A nudge over an hour here, and this is less a focus on one particular album as in A-Un. Covering a number of Krush’s albums in chronological order, the footage is again more of the same in terms of studio and live performance, but we also get to see interview footage of Krush as he discusses his life, working with others and how he has reached the point at where he is at. Thankfully for non-Japanese speakers, all of Krush’s thoughts are carefully subtitled, and in a rare change for subtitled Japanese content, do a very competent job of conveying what is being said rather than stringing together ‘near-as-dammit’ Engrish. In a nice touch, the mostly foreign collaborators are subtitled in Japanese so that nobody is left out. Taking the helm at the start of the disc are C.L. Smooth and DJ Shadow, showing their contribution in 1995 to Meiso, Krush’s 3rd studio album. One of the more interesting aspects of this segment is an impromptu interview with Shadow, and then with both Shadow and Krush together. They are both widely unaware of eachother’s language, yet the common ground of hip hop clearly binds them together. That they can be so productive and deliver such creative works and yet barely be able to speak to eachother is a valuable lesson that everyone can take something from - where language is a barrier, interests such as (but not restricted to) hip hop go a long way towards uniting people from different nations. The rest of the disc covers footage from around the time of Krush’s later albums such as Zen, The Message At The Depth and Jaku. Earlier footage suffers from the obvious problems as explained above, but later footage shows up okay. Again, sound quality is of a high level.

Disc 3 (Clips): And finally, we reach the promo videos disc. Obviously of a higher standard all round on the audio/visual front, this disc takes in nine videos shot at broadcast quality. The tracks range from across the period of time featured in the first two discs, and are, as you would expect, shot in a moody atmospheric fashion befitting of the music they are soundtracked by. These videos are perhaps of more interest to those outside of Japan where they are unlikely to have been shown in any great amount, but it is nice to have them all in one place to casually flip on as the viewer pleases. Female vocalists Esthero and ACO, among others, do a good job of adding presence to videos otherwise showing Krush in his inimitably reserved stance… apart from when he’s cutting raw heat on the decks, of course.

In summary, this DVD set won’t convert you if you aren’t already a fan of DJ Krush’s work or have never heard of him - in fact, it can be fairly dizzying and alienating in it’s relentless pursuit of cataloguing Krush’s history. However, if you have been following Krush over the years, this truly is a definitive visual set that would sit happily in your collection.

Suimou Tsunenimasu is available now in Japan. A general worldwide release is unconfirmed at the time of writing. See below for more shots of the DVD set in all it’s glory.