Kerri Chandler

Style : Deep House, Garage
Label: Ibadan Records
Official Site : www.ibadanrecords.com

Few artists in the music business reach the level of accomplishment and status that Kerri Chandler has achieved. He is known throughout the universe as one of the original creators of the deep house sound and his "basslines" are now legendary. Kerri grew up in the New Jersey area during the days of the infamous Zanzibar club with resident DJ Tony Humpries. Kerri's father was a DJ as well, which gave Kerri a rich background in the origins of the New York Underground Sound (known also as "Garage" music). He made his DJ debut at the Rally Record Club in East Orange, New Jersey at the tender age of Thirteen.

Kerri eventually found himself intrigued with the production element in dance music and soon began to create his own grooves on his one man label, Express Records. In 1991, Atlantic Records signed his debut single, "SuperLover / Get It Off" and the rest is House Music History. Despite his success, Kerri Chandler has always remained true to the spirit of the underground. When listening to tracks such as the "Atmosphere E.P." on Shelter Records and the seminal, "A Basement, Redlight and A Feeling" album on Madhouse, one has to marvel at Kerri's ability to not compromise his unique sound for commercial gain. Kerri Chandler is a vortex where tradition and innovation meet. Tradition as in the soulful roots of Jersey house, innovation as in the streamlined, sparse arrangements and shrewd use of technology. Kerri masters rhythm and space.

Kerri injects his free spirit into his productions. With a solid education in Garage grooves, Kerri takes vocals, rhythms and instruments and with uncanny precision pieces them together, delivering beautiful, monster jams. In the expanses of his breaks the odd counter rhythm will inexplicably appear for a second and then disappear, creating fleshy excitement, not mechanical repetition. His basslines go from heavy and heady to playful and quirky -always deliriously intoxicating. His hooks are loving details like horn hits, washes of synthesizer or catchy choruses that emerge to create songs from a maddening bulldozer of brutal drive. Here the dreamer takes hold, transporting us into a dimension of seemingly endless travel...

Kerri is sure to continue to startle us as he has from the very beginning as with his first remix, the now-classic scratch on "Get It Off". His fusions, clamped to the beat of his unique, thundering kick drum, redefine house music at every turn.

Party report, KING STREET SOUND presents KERRI CHANDLER @ YELLOW, TOKYO (4th December, 2004)