Away from the large first-day fuji rock crowd, DJ SEI kicked off Friday in the tranquil setting of the Day Dreaming stage, which, for those that don’t know, is a good 20 minute gondola ride from the main area.

SEI is known in the Tokyo scene for starting ‘Bar bonobo’, a small (probably one of the smallest night clubs in the world) hole-in-the-wall music club/bar that houses both house and techno lovers from all around the world. Bar bonobo is located in an old two-story house with a tiny terrace on the top, in a Harajuku backstreet, not far from Kita-sando station. What bonobo fans love about the place is the ‘house party’ vibe it gives off. Everyone is welcome at bonobo. The tiny venue has gained its credibility in the scene and you can find some great DJs playing there every weekend.

SEI started the bar, together with close friends, in 2005 after returning back to Japan from his previous life doing music production in New York for about 10 years. As a music professional, SEI’s main objective as a DJ is to cross as many boundaries as possible, may that be music genres, transitions, and the like.

Despite going to bonobo a few times, I have actually never seen SEI play live before. I had only heard of his greatness as a DJ and his ability to cross genres into one fluid set. His set was house music, of course, but there were notes of African (tribal-esque), European and even Latin music. While the house beat stayed fairly similar throughout as most house DJ’s do, the samples and inserts included different languages such as Dutch and some South American language that I can’t quite pin point.

He kept his cool the whole time behind the booth, rocking from side to side, just genuinly enjoying his time at Fuji Rock with a crowd of people that you could tell all knew exactly who he was.

SEI’s set at Day Dreaming was a great way to kick off the weekend. I’ll definitely be going back to bonobo to see him play in the near future.