Osaka, Japan · techno · DJ set · club · electronic

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Osaka-born cult selector Yousuke Yukimatsu — genre-shredding DJ sets that went from viral clips to worldwide bookings, anything-goes technique with total joy.

Yousuke Yukimatsu was born in 1979 in Jōtō-ku, Osaka, and grew up on classic rock through his Deep Purple-loving father before moving through hard rock and metal in middle school and alternative rock and electronic acts like Sonic Youth and the Prodigy in high school. He started DJing in 2008 at a friend's party in his hometown.

His reputation built slowly through occasional parties in Osaka and Kobe until 2014, when a set played alongside techno artist DJ Nobu led to an invitation to Nobu's Future Terror party in Tokyo. He went on to play alongside Oneohtrix Point Never, Marcel Fengler and Adam X, and founded his own Zone Unknown party series in Osaka and Kobe, booking acts including Palmistry, Kamixlo and Arca, who performed live vocals during one of his sets.

He returned to DJing after treatment for a brain tumour: previously working in construction, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumour in 2016, left his job, underwent two surgeries, and afterward committed himself fully to music. In 2020 he released the mix album Midnight is Comin' on the Singapore label Midnight Shift, drawing mostly on obscure Japanese experimental musicians, and toured Europe to promote it.

A Boiler Room set recorded in Tokyo drew more than twelve million views within half a year, mixing references to artists like Romy and Overmono with acid house. On stage he performs topless with visible physical enthusiasm, and his sets are generally described in terms of unpredictability rather than a fixed style or tempo.

Beyond DJing, he has appeared as a dancer in Tianzhuo Chen's long-running international performance piece TRANCE since 2019, and played a DJ in an underground Tokyo party scene in the 2024 film Happyend, directed by Neo Sora.

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