DJ KAWASAKI

DJ Kawasaki is a somewhat of a newcomer, a rookie if you will. However shortly after he released his debut album "Beautiful" in fall of 2006, he became a staple and a new ambassador for Japanese club and dance music. He usually makes his own original compositions in music in addition to remixing other people's songs. The reason why I call him Mr. MPC 3000 is that he is known for using an Akai MPC 3000 drum machine for making his fabulous beats.

DJ Kawasaki is a somewhat of a newcomer, a rookie if you will. However shortly after he released his debut album "Beautiful" in fall of 2006, he became a staple and a new ambassador for Japanese club and dance music. He usually makes his own original compositions in music in addition to remixing other people's songs. The reason why I call him Mr. MPC 3000 is that he is known for using an Akai MPC 3000 drum machine for making his fabulous beats. The album is made up of 10 original tracks and it starts off with a short introduction track.

The intro is a slow solo piano melody of the second track "Beautiful" which sounds very sophisticated, smooth, and mellow. The second track Beautiful is probably DJ Kawasaki's show piece and main single off the album (hence the title of the album), but for myself I like track 3 "Save Your Love" best of all! Save Your Love is real hard hitting house complete with synths, horns, a heavy beat, and strong bass. It is so easy to dance to Save Your Love, and when you do, you will shake your butt... Hard! The song just sends chills through my body, it sounds so good. The 4th track "Promises" continues the up-tempo music going with Terrance Downs lacing the track with smooth black male soul vocals.

Whew! "Shooting Star" is an instrumental track and although good, it isn't personally one of my favorites on the album. The piano jams only a little on this one. Track 6 "The Love of Music" sounds like something that would be composed by "Kyoto Jazz Massive", very nu-jazz sounding. Lady Alma provides the vocals for the track. Track 7 "I'm So On Your Mind" goes back to the sound more of the earlier tracks, even though it's not as good as those particularly, it still sounds great none the less. The final 3 tracks "Like Thunder", "Blazin'", and "The Galaxy" send the album off on a positive note but necessarily memorable or very strong.

Truth be told the first half of the album sounds better than the later, but upon first listening maybe you will be very impressed by all the songs. I was impressed by everything I heard at first because of the fact that DJ Kawasaki doesn't sound like anybody else. Everything has a complete original sound. Quality music is what I'd call it. The photo on the front and back of the CD jewel case is of a famous Japanese model name Lena.

I like it (smiles). In 2007 DJ Kawasaki released a sophomore album of more of his productions & remixes called "Beautiful Too". I highly recommend this album as well. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..