GARAGEM // Artists & DJs // Kiko

Kiko
Electro / Techno ~ FR

French dance star Kiko releases his incredible second album, Slave Of My Mind, in April. Second album? It\'s probably news to you that he released his debut, Midnight Magic, back in 2001. In fact, Kiko will be a brand new name to many. But to those who\'ve avidly tracked the fortunes of the dance scene over the past decade, this debonair producer requires no introduction – but we\'ll provide one, anyway.

Based in Grenoble, Kiko made his name crafting slick, melodic techno for local labels like Goodlife and Ozone in the late 1990s. At the time, his contemporaries included The Hacker, Oxia, Vitalic and Miss Kittin. Together they formed a kind of informal Gallic techno alliance that operated outside chi-chi Paris, and Grenoble briefly became known as the Detroit of France.

After a number of EPs, Kiko changed tack and released the hot electronic thrust of "Monique", a taster for the excellent Midnight Magic, just as electroclash blossomed across Europe.

Inspired by Italo-disco, new wave and long summer nights, Midnight Magic received glowing reviews in UK rags such as NME and Mixmag and paved the way for his next project, Sinema. Pre-empting a resurgence of interest in Italo-disco and all things pastel-hued and 80s, this glossy electro-pop collaboration with Stéphane Deschezeaux produced the ecstatic album Love Emulator in 2002 and they had a degree of success with the hard romance of "In My Eyes".

And then nothing of note from Kiko for a few years. But that\'s okay because in many ways “Slave Of My Mind” marks a fresh start.

"I went much further in term of composition with this album," he says. "I spent hours to fine tune different layers of sounds, blending them to try to create something that sounds simple and unique. It\'s a total different approach from my previous album that I did in a rush."

Listening to Slave Of My Mind, you can hear what he means. This remarkable record blends rave euphoria with an elegant, almost minimal approach, one that\'s markedly different from the disco clatter that characterized his earlier work. Here, on tracks such as "Alone In The Dark" and the blissful "Preludia", the melodies are sinuous and graceful, the highs hazy and intoxicating. The pretty interludes, "Shanel 78" and "Science Naturel", too, are delightfully cosmic. Into the mix on tougher tracks such as "World End Rock Up" and "So Time" Kiko introduces elements of Belgian new beat.

This is the sound of a producer at the top of his game, who happens to be mapping out the zone somewhere between James Holden, Vitalic and Rekid. A serious guy with a young family, Kiko doesn\'t give too many interviews. For him, he says, Slave Of My Mind is profoundly personal statement – a release, in both senses.

"I\'m making music every day and that my last album is already six years old," he says when asked why he has put out the record. "It\'s also about me translating my emotions and feelings after my mother passed away and all the close people I lost over these last years – my father, my grandparents. It\'s sometimes a musical therapy and at the same time something very positive as I want to leave a musical trace for my daughter."

He adds: "I think I reached a new step in my career with this album so I\'m very curious to see how it will be perceived internationally."

Considering it\'s already being talked about as one of the finest dance records in years, it looks like Slave Of My Mind will go down pretty well wherever it\'s played.