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12"
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BPC 221EP
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Joakim Ijäs aka Kiki presents Cinema Obscura, which follows on seamlessly from U.S. house traditions, yet also reduces them to absurdity with atmospheric density and sonic extravagance. "Sumore" rolls along at pulse rate, generates its own energy and swings calmly like a giant pendulum over the dancefloor. "Cinema Obscura" also takes its time, radiating an almost stoic tranquility, until a hypnotic, bouncing piano riff flows into the rolling house percussion. Also contains a remix of "Good Voodoo" from Subb-an.
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12"
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BPC 205EP
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Kiki's second hit, "Immortal," from his album, Kaiku (BPC 196CD) is remixed and given an instrumental treatment. A reunion with a cellist from Kiki's hometown of Helsinki enhances the instrumental with a wonderful, intensive atmosphere. Kiki's Venice festival encounter with singer and harpist Pirica is likewise fortuitous as she takes "Immortal" to a whole new, hypnotic dimension. Anja Schneider transforms Kiki's original into a modern-sounding hegemonic, DJ-friendly house track. Holger Zilske's remix on the flip is a real stroke of genius.
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12"
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BPC 195EP
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BPitch presents "Good Voodoo," one of the hits from Kiki's second album, Kaiku, remixed by good friends. Whoever hears the organ sequence and the bewitching vocals from Chela Simone will never forget this track. Jay Haze turns it into a sharp-edged groove, replacing the organ with a piano hook and a driving rhythm. Visionquest (Ryan Eliott, Shaun Reeves, Seth Troxler) transforms the track into pure, driving house. Chaim's remix focuses on the hypnotic interaction between the vocals and the groove.
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CD
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BPC 196CD
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This is the second full-length release by Finland-born/Berlin-based Joakim Ijäs aka Kiki for the BPitch Control label. While crafting this second album, Kiki became fully immersed in the waves of the creative process: phases in which everything seems clear, but also moments when things appear stuck and one remains uncertain about what step to take next to make a vision come to life. As the artist himself explains, "When I worked on the album, there were situations when I had a very clear picture of what I wanted without knowing for sure how to realize it, so I had to take a short break. Each time this happened I found a solution after a few days that would solve my dilemma. It was as if I had shouted a question into a world within my mind and what came back was my echo with the answer." Hence, it is no big surprise that Kiki titled his album Kaiku -- the Finnish term for "echo." While all the artists who contributed to Kaiku stepped into Kiki's life in a variety of very unforeseen fashions and ways, Kaiku speaks of a maturing process that moved away some of the focus from club compatibility towards a more subtle and personal mood, where memories of last weekend seem to resonate like a gentle echo. Jacking, old school tracks like "Good Voodoo" or floating anthems like "Starslider" stand right next to downbeat variations such as "No Words Necessary" and typical dancefloor bombs like the opening track "Autumn Leaves" or "Mogadishu," making Kaiku by far the most mature and timeless thing ever to come from Kiki. Guest artists include MC Chela Simone and Italian experimental quartet, Pirica.
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12"
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BPC 164EP
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With this amazing and dynamic tech-house track, Kiki proves his abilities and understanding for music. Right after the very first moments of "Dancing Graffiti" your legs start to move and your whole body follows. The bass forms the outline and is filled in by adrenaline-fuelled bells and synthesizer. A can-shake commands you to the dancefloor. Zander VT pick up the can and combine it with claps, hi-hats and sirens. Shake that can!
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12"
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BPC 152EP
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Kiki's new release Joko Tai is a fine techno production with tribal beats and a few strange synth lines that stick in your head for hours. The title track consists of two parts: the beginning with a melancholic, dark mood and the second part with a piano sound and fat beats. "Gute Nacht" is a tribute to the 8000 people he played for in Madrid at the Goa Club -- catching that feeling of big space and enthusiastic people.
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12"
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BPC 141EP
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For his new EP, Kiki adjourns to cinematic regions. Inspired by the great director Wim Wenders (Don't Come Knocking, Paris-Texas, etc.) Kiki wanted to create a musical desert landscape and come closer to the myth of the cowboy and lone wolf. With his two versions of "Trust Me," Kiki plunged into hypnotic sound worlds where the lonesome cowboy scuffles over the sand of Texas -- with his iPod at his belt buckle. The A-side is the club version -- collective hypnosis, continuous beats and synths and sounds in between, where you feel transferred into strange worlds. The "Cowboy Mix" is for chilling at home. More melodic and with a slide guitar riff -- a trip into the desolate desert.
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CD
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BPC 120CD
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BPitch inaugurates a new kind of mix CD and series. Boogy Bytes is a wholly unique listening experience, with tracks hidden within tracks, making for a free-associative-type ride. Even the cover, a snapshot of Kiki, frozen in time while shaking his head by Axl Jansen, is a new sort of animal. The techno-centric Boogy Bytes Vol. 1 has 16 indexes, but really it has 25 tracks, all digitally spliced and bifurcated, then layered on top and within one another like a fine Finnish pastry -- as when the elephants from Andre Kraml's "Safari" trample through Donal Tierney -- or when the vocals from Kiki's "The End of the World" climb over Guy Gerber's "Stoppage Time." Born in Helsinki, Kiki himself was a young hip-hop DJ, and can regularly be seen on 3 turntables, so this blending comes as second nature. His well-received Run With Me debut ("Glamorous" -- Simon Reynolds) was a precursor to this astonishing project: an expertly mixed, delicately balanced, ever-so-gradually ascending technologic delight. From start to, well, Finnish, the 16 or 25 tracks don't take you on a journey as much as they teleport you to heaven. Perhaps it's a kind of dance music soufflé, and Kiki is DJ Julia Child. This thing is literally next level(s).
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12"
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BPC 118EP
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Finnish architecture student and BPitch 4-year veteran Kiki (aka Jokim Ijäs) weaves a pitch-black dress with embroidered sparkling star signs. The two tracks from the depths of the galaxy are entitled "M44" and "Sirius," and together they create pure matter. One is the essence of the other -- its consolidation. While on "M44" Kiki blithely employs '90s synth sounds with a broad and satisfied smile, "Sirius" is a trance-y progression as dense as a nebula.
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12"
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BPC 102EP
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Remixes by Ada (Areal) and Kiki! "A sincere 'ahoi' for the 'So Easy to Forget' -- remixes from Kiki's album Run With Me (BPC095). Normally Ada ships her way through the channels of the 'Rhein' around Cologne on her Mothership MS Areal, but the sound of her machines is well known on the Spree especially around Berlin's waterways, since she released her debut-album Blondie just recently. The water is clear and the air is warm on this sunny day as Ada lands on Kiki's dock, with her version of 'So Easy to Forget' still in mind. She has softened the bassline and rounded the harmonies of the android-like chorus. She accelerates with cushy beats against the inner hull of her ship. This sound, combined with the crispy claps of the crew, transforms Kiki's track into a easy burner, while Captain Kiki himself sends Morse codes and other sound signals of the original track from his deck through his seaborne computer, creating an irresistible flow towards the dancefloor, passing through several shell filters to give it the extra ocean touch. With Ada and Kiki on the decks we've got two of the most sought after navigators in the ocean of electronic dance music. They guarantee a cruise You will never forget."
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2LP
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BPC 095LP
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CD
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BPC 095CD
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"Kiki, a native Fin and immigrated Berliner, is an international DJ. He has been producing music for BPitch Control since the last three years. He is presenting his first album Run With Me following five EP's. It's full of strings vs. static sound, hard beats vs. harmonic aesthetic. We imagine it as if Kiki were some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hide. He is thus pulling together his main influences for this first album. The track mentioned before is not only first on the album, but it also stands for a beginning. This is the sound Kiki had desired in the days of his school band. He listened to Kiss and loved the darker side of David Bowie. Today, the following text may help to dispel the apocalyptic title: '...end of the world as we know it.' This is to say that things change and Kiki regards this with ease and curiosity. It seems to be quite the natural position for him since he sings this line, like all the others, rather spontaneously into his recorder. Writing just doesn't do it: Kiki is well-schooled in the realm of hip hop, rapping, and DJing. He even utilizes an old drum-tape from the old days for a groovy track 'On the 140th day.' After many attempts, Kiki finally moved to Berlin some ten years ago only to find happiness. Here he heard a lot of Detroit and local Berlin sounds. His hook lines come from spacious echo frequencies and from mystical Morse code that the city of motors is known for. He appreciates off-kilter melodies and floating dub hi-hats just as much as violin strings made for film music. The throbbing beat and driving bass rarely go away. Run With Me is a call in the direction of the dance floor. There is a picture in Kiki's head in relation to this creative mix: the way wind and weather breeze by him strolling with his Walkman along the beach in Helsinki. Perhaps this is why the underlying melancholic sound pervade the basic vibe. It's for sure, however, that the over-arching vision coming from these diverse sources of inspiration unite under the title: Kiki's 'Big picture'."
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12"
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BPC 082EP
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"We proudly present: His excellence Kiki's fifth masterpiece at the imperial court of the Bpitch Control dynasty. Onward minstrel, let us hear his story. Kiki, in his saddle, on a bank. Below him in the plains and above him in the skies the powers are blustering, in expression of his inner engorgement. But in this hour in between darkness and light, two souls are fighting in his chest. The augurs have always been forewarning him for the 'Age of Cancer' he was born in, an extremely sensitive zodiac sign urging towards the outside with heart and soul. Only through wise demure he would be able to direct his reign into fruitful paths, he was admonished by the sages. So in the daytime he induced to build dikes, to reclaim new land and to erect buildings of symmetrical shape. Linear routes were drawn through his kingdom."
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12"
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BPC 093EP
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"With 'End of the world', Kiki opens his album Run with me. Whoever imagines an apocalyptic scene, misses the vision here. For Kiki the track pays musical homage to his Gothic & Wave phase, while for the most part the text concludes with a tendency towards the traditional courageous departure. Kiki's own sweeping remix now scatters the last doubts concerning the melancholy."
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