Japanese star DJ ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U – or just Yousuke Yukimatsu – knows that life is fragile, and he refuses to waste a second on mediocrity. He was on his way to becoming a respected DJ in his hometown of Osaka while working in construction when, in 2016, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He survived the operation, quit his day job and swapped the cement mixer for turntables. As one fan commented under his legendary 2024 Boiler Room set: “He went from mixing concrete to mixing the nastiest beats together after getting cancer. Dude’s a living legend.”
It’s hard to disagree. In recent years, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U has cemented his reputation as a defining force in global club culture – a DJ who can turn pure chaos into catharsis. Pitchfork once described him as “a combination of shaman, warrior, and trickster,” and behind his ritualistic DJ altar he blends everything from acid house and industrial techno eruptions to noise-driven assaults echoing heavy metal, avant-garde and The Prodigy.
If there’s one thing that defines ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U, it’s his uncompromising physicality – and his inability to keep a shirt on for very long. The crowd is always happy to follow suit, and the atmosphere quickly spills over into something resembling collective ecstasy. Yukimatsu thrives on taking risks: mixing Mariah Carey into a drum’n’bass blowout, sliding Aerosmith into a wall of noise or ending a set with a piece of classic Japanese ambient. Nothing is too sacred; everything gets churned, twisted and reborn in his sonic cement mixer.
That his spellbinding Boiler Room session from Tokyo in 2024 is now the most viewed in the platform’s history says everything about the superstar status he’s achieved within DJ culture. When ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U hits Roskilde Festival this summer, expect a mind-expanding rave – brutal, beautiful and completely unfiltered.
