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.

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