Kenshiro “WHITEFISTS” Tsukamoto is a guitarist and composer from Kyoto, Japan. He’s notable for being among the most successful artists to contribute to the Be-Music Source community (or BMS, a simulation of the arcade game Beatmania) using almost entirely live recordings, rather than MIDI-programmed instruments.

This is a practice which requires a remarkable amount of diligence during a process called “hitsounding”, which involves taking every unique sound that will be played in-game and making it a separate audio file. Live instruments carry a significant amount of variance in which the same note can be played, meaning every iteration of that note must be recreated to reproduce the recording.

While his tracks are mostly instrumental, WHITEFISTS has been experimenting with and releasing albums featuring vocals, both in the form of samples and collaborations with vocalists.

WHITEFISTS plays what appears to be a custom guitar by Skervesen, who has also provided instruments for Modern Day Babylon, Felix Martin and Periphery’s Misha Mansoor.