“Music cyborg with heart”, reads the Instagram bio of legendary composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Takuya Nakamura. After watching his Thursday night set at YES basement, it’d be hard to argue with him. Having toured globally for the last 30 years, it’s clear that the Tokyo artist lives and breathes music.
While previous visits to YES Basement have primarily included angsty guitar bands – the venue’s low roof, dark corners, and claustrophobic atmosphere are ideal for Nakamura’s diverse brand of electronica. Arriving on a fog-filled stage, the grey-haired maestro takes his station behind the decks as the sparse crowd fills up.
As an ambient, trumpet-filled opening gives way to some arching DnB, it’s easy to imagine yourself mentally transported to the mid-90s NYC jungle scene where Nakamura first made his name. It soon becomes clear that Nakamura did his homework on Northern listening habits, and increasingly heavier baselines are met with increasing positivity as the slow-starting crowd get fully on board.
They push further toward the stage as Nakamura delves deeper into rich melodies and complex rhythms. Like a cross between Aphex Twin and Freddie Hubbard, he effortlessly switches between trumpet and turntables to merge breakbeat, cosmic jungle and liquid funk. With an unmatched recognition for pattern, beat, tempo and space, Nakamura provides a vast output of eclectic tracks.
His hands dance over the turntables with a delicate grace, and from the night’s midpoint, Nakamura has the sweaty, swaying crowd in the palm of his hand. He hits the throttle, then pulls back again, leaving them desperate for more. Songs of expansive sonic and rhythmic range impressively weave together, and viciously stripped-back minimalism blends with jolting dub and intense trumpet interludes. He makes it all look so easy.
As the tempo slows and the few heavy hitters down the front suffer from fatigue, things are brought full circle as the set winds down with a trumpet-filled finish. Ultimately, Nakamura is uncategorizable, and his YES basement appearance showed an artist at the peak of his powers. Brimming with big ideas and displaying appreciation for a broad selection of sounds, his set was no less than a success.
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