MP3: Kiki – “No Words Neccesary”
Kiki: Good Voodoo (feat. Chela Simone)
Joakim Ijäs (aka Kiki) was born in Helsinki, but has now found his home in Berlin.
Initial forays into making sounds with violins and pianos soon gave way to the mechanical beats
of hip-hop, mixed together with more popular sounds whilst playing at school discos before he was
even a teenager. With such an early start it was no surprise that before he was old enough to enter
a club, Kiki was holding down a weekly residency at Helsinki’s Tempo club, which was swiftly
followed by another at the Smile club.
A move to Berlin in 1994 to study Architecture was the catalyst for Kiki to step in to the realms of
a serious DJ. Impressing the legendary Masters At Work at a Marlboro DJ competition led to him
securing gigs at Berlin’s three cathedrals of techno -Tresor, Pfefferbank and WMF. Gigs in Berlin
and Germany were soon followed by a string of international bookings and the release of an infamous three deck mix for Sonnenhaus which led to DE:BUG worrying about the health of his fingers.
With his profile as a DJ growing it was two short steps to releasing his first record on Ellen Allien’s
BPitch Control label in 2001, who through a happy coincidence he had met when the pair were
double booked to play the same DJ slot. Since then Kiki has become an integral part of the BPitch
family growing into a truly international artist, sharing his love of energetic and hypnotic music
across the globe from Mexico, to Tokyo and making a little bit of history along the way.
With an output that has been nothing short of prolific, Kiki has released a number of genre defining
records both as himself and later with partner in crime Silversurfer. Kiki was the first artist asked
to put together a mix for the now legendary Boogy Bytes series, and has been asked to provide
remixes and productions for labels as diverse as Bugged Out, Playhouse and Crosstown Rebels
where he had the honour of being the first artist releasing on the label. His debut album Run With
Me, released on Bpitch Control, was an international success, and led to the video for “Shake Off”
(a collaboration with Silversurfer and Captain Comatose) being playlisted by MTV. More recently a
collaboration with Sasse and his Moodmusic imprint led to the release of the excellent Grand Cru
– a modern club classic already. However, as he has grown and matured, a yearning to explore
deeper and more personal forms of expression in music, has led to Kiki working on the follow up
to his debut album. Without forgetting his roots in the club, Kiki has reigned back the short sharp
thrill of 12″ releases to concentrate on his second album.
And so the next chapter begins. Kiki is set to release Kaiku (which means “echo” in Finnish) in late
spring of 2009. Like a musical calling card it combines all of the elements that can only be learned
through a life dedicated to music and musical expression. Where the space between house and
techno and electronic music becomes blurred to the point of irrelevance and the feeling and emotions created by the music give you all the labels you will ever need. As the song on Kaiku says – “No Words Necessary“.
Kiki
Kaiku
(BPitch Control)
Street date: May 26, 2009
01. autumn leaves
02. after the storm
03. good vodoo (feat. chela simone)
04. no words necessary
05. starslider
06. immortal (feat. pirica)
07. death railway
08. twins (feat. jake the rapper)
09. mogadishu
10. living on ffwd
11. helios
KIKI LINKS:
MySpace – www.myspace.com/kikibpitchcontrol
Press Materials – www.bpitchcontrol.de/artist/20/22