Charlotte was playing some tracks today from a Spotify playlist of hers today as we were playing decrypto, and this one track randomly came up, a true madeleine de Proust, Song 2 by DJ Krush.

DJ Krush - Song 2 (2004)

This track has me right in the feels, I distinctly remember how I first discovered it, and you guessed it from the YouTube embed… from a video game called Little Big Planet, released in 2008 on PlayStation 3. This game is truly one of a kind, a playful platformer where you play sock puppets. The only mechanic of the game is to grab on things, and play with the physics to get launched in the air and defy gravity to go through levels with different themes. They are always perfectly executed in their atmosphere; both in terms of music, layout, and actual graphics.

This track was barely used in the solo campaign; but was used a shit load in the online community maps (due to it being so good most likely). The first time it comes up is really late in the campaign, in the Japan-themed level called The Islands, in its second stage where you would catapult yourself into a castle which was full of automated ninjas, sumos and super hard acrobatic jumps with wheels. I remember coming to a full stop, and listening to the song, and being like “manne, this slaps”. I went through 3 or 4 rotations, stopped playing and went ahead and looked up the artist, and came across DJ Krush. Incredibly, I was in the middle of my scratching fade with my bff Edouard, where we were both looking in awe at guys like DJ Shadow, C2C; or other DMC winners in general. And just like that, I randomly came across the “DJ Shadow of Japan”, through some sock puppet video game, ahah, I guess you never really stop digging, and the crate finds you more often than you find the crate?

Anyway! I looked up DJ Krush, and quickly started playing on repeat his two albums I could get my hands on at the time: Jaku (where this track is from) and Zen. While there are many tracks I could highlight from these two, I think I will just loop the loop and share… Song 1, opening track of Zen. Very similar vibes, chill af. Hope you enjoyed the tracks! Peace out.

DJ Krush - Song 1 (2001)