DJ Koco – Guest Mix

02.09.2021
With DJ Koco, amazing mixing skills meet a selection of tremendous sophistication. Hardly anyone cuts his breakbeats tighter into each other than he does. The most amazing thing: The Japanese DJ limits himself to 7-inches in his sets.

Your favorite DJ’s favorite DJ: In Japan, DJ Koco aka Shimokita has likely been regularly featured with these words for more than a decade. In 2011, the equally passionate and talented scratch DJ, turntablist and crate digger based in Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa district specializes in vinyl 7inches. Since then, DJ Koco has released several dozen mixes. He became known to a wider audience through appearances on DJ Scratch’s »ScratchVisionÍ« and the »Park Jam Series« starting in 2016. In early 2019, DJ Koco was invited alongside Cut Chemist, Kenny Dope and Derrick May to showcase the latest Technics turntable model in Las Vegas at the Boiler Room.

Anyone who sets out to follow the lanky chin-beard and baseball cap wearer during one of his beat juggles should already be reasonably free of giddiness: one has rarely experienced this before with such aplomb and razor-sharpness as DJ Koco cuts his funk, soul, hip hop and disco hits on and into each other, doubles them, extends their breaks, anticipates their drum rolls with scratches, chops up horn sections and guitar riffs and puts them back together again. In addition, the DJ, who went blind in his right eye after a car accident in his elementary school days, has raised the bar again by concentrating on the single format, and in two respects: First, dealing with vinyl 7inches on the turntable is much trickier than dealing with vinyl 12inches – singles are smaller, lighter, and thus more susceptible to vibrations – and in addition, you have to find the repertoire first. Because with DJ Koco, amazing mixing skills meet a selection with tremendous sophistication – the Japanese seems like a hybrid of Kool Herc, Jazzy Jeff, Theo Parrish and DJ Harvey.

At the mixing desk in restless motion, Koco presents an irresistible flow in which, in keeping with Kool Herc’s »Merry-Go-Round« doctrine, break follows break, with the individual parts rarely stopping for more than four bars. Even a quick glance at DJ Koco’s Instagram profile, which now resembles a sample catalog with over 1,500 entries, is enough to recognize his qualities: His transitions alone are in a class of their own. As you can hear in this mix exclusively created for HHV Records.