Laptop Battle Tokyo Vol. 5 at Super Deluxe was far more incredible than I was expecting it to be. There was a fairly wide range of interesting performances and music styles, such as Taishin Inoue and Back in Tokio. But more than anything, I got to hear some wonderful breakcore by JaQwa, so good that I would put it up there with Venetian Snares, the genius himself.
Unfortunately, JaQwa got beat out in his second round by the dance party antics of DJ Take. I felt pretty let down by this since DJ Take was just spinning other people’s music, like Chemical Brothers and Fat Boy Slim. It was a little interesting to see him sample himself beatboxing, then scratch it on his digital turntables, but this could have been executed much better, and the crowd was far more into it than they should have been.
Thankfully, DJ Take was beat out in the end by Plapla Pinky, with whose performance I was pleased. One of his pieces had a reggaeton feel to it and made my eyes watery (the second time of the night — the first by JaQwa), but I neglected to get a recording of it.
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