A poly-rhythmic paradise to be poured into the ears, Jahcoozi's music is as original as the phonetic imagination of their name. Hailing from the Berlin club scene and its international cohorts in the pre-Internet era of the early noughties, this bass-heavy electronica trio is a creative alliance made up of London-born, Sri Lankan songwriter and front woman Sasha Perera and two beat-freak producers
/multi-instrumentalists — Teuton Robot Koch and Tel-Aviv born Oren Gerlitz.
Jahcoozi who are currently signed to Bpitch Control have consistently managed to deliver their own mongrel style of avant-garde yet pop-tinged electronic music. Having met during a long, coal-fuelled winter in Berlin in 2002 and the trio have been making music together ever since. Songs such as Black Barbie and Fish (released as a debut single in 2003 on WMF Records) gained them early recognition, the latter earning them a spotlight on the cult BBC radio show of the late John Peel. He called it "Beautiful and surreal pop music from the future". Three albums later, this description still applies today.
In 2005, they were snapped up by Kitty-Yo, the Berlin-based mother label of Peaches and unleashed their Black Barbie picture disc vinyl and their long-awaited, full-length debut album entitled Pure Breed Mongrel.
The versatility of Jahcoozi's music and the sheer energy of their live gigs has led them on an unrelenting trail across 5 continents, playing everything from festivals to clubs, raves, squats, galleries, and even impromtu Boombox parties in a Berlin underpass, morphing almost any situation into a people-power style happening and a sonic orgy. Jahcoozi's live shows come armed with an arsenal of remixes/versions/bootlegs of their own songs as well as other unreleased material they've made purely for the love and fun of ripping up the dance floor. Whilst having played shows such as the televised opening of the IFFA Athletics World Cup at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate or the Expo in Shangha, they regularly play at institutions such as Fabric in London, Rex club in Paris, or Montreal's prestigious Mutek Festival.
With 3 full-length albums (Pure Breed Mongrel, Blitz 'n' Ass, and Barefoot Wanderer), an exclusive Japanese album (BLN 4 JPN ), numerous EPs, picture discs, remixes and collaborations to their name, Jahcoozi have worked with a range of labels over the years including Kitty-Yo, Asound/K7, Playhouse, NinjaTune, Citizen Records, Crosstown Rebels, 1965, WMF Records, Hydra etc.
Jahcoozi's darkest, slowest and most recent album to date Barefoot Wanderer came out in 2010 on Ellen Alien's Berlin-based imprint Bpitch Control. Resident Advisor deemed it "one of the year's most disturbingly beautiful creations…," and rightly so.
Over the years, Jahcoozi have collaborated with and been remixed by a highly-contrasting and refreshingly wide range of artists, including Modeselektor, Anti Pop Consortium's M.Sayiid, Ramadanman / Pearson Sound, Ikonika, Stereotyp, Asian Dub Foundation, Oliver $, Siriusmo, Kano, Tinchy Stryder, Luomo, Sukh Knight, Milanese, Mochipet, Kaspar Bjoerke, King Cannibal, Barbara Panther and Kalbata.
Jahcoozi's geniune love of experimentation has kept them busy and lead them to collaborate in many ways. This is evidenced in their side endeavors (BLNRB) and solo projects (Robot Koch & Perera Elsewhere). Robot Koch recently released his stunning third solo album and has also been busy working on productions for other artists such as Marteria and John Robinson.
Jahcoozi spent a few weeks of in a house in Nairobi, Kenya working on a Goethe-Institut funded Berlin-Nairobi music exchange project that involved 22 Kenyan musicians/mcs/singers, Jahcoozi, Modeselektor and Gebrueder Teichmann. A collaborative BLNRB album titled 'Welcome To The Madhouse'was released on Outhere Records in 2011.
A similar collaborative project with South Asian artists titled SoundCamp took place in 2012.
Stay tuned….
