Jahcoozi is a bass-heavy electronica trio made up of London-born, Sri Lankan heritage songwriter and front womanSasha Perera and two producers and instrumentalists, Robot Koch and Tel-Aviv born Oren Gerlitz. The band met and formed in Berlin in 2002 and have released three albums.
Musical style
Jahcoozi's sound has been described as consisting of abstract electronic beats within ragga, dub and electronica. A mongrel style of avant-garde, electronic pop music. The group built up a solid fan-base with their freaky underground shows in 2003. Songs such as Black Barbie and Fish (released as a debut single in 2003 on WMF Records gained them early recognition. The latter earned them a spotlight on the cult BBC show of the late John Peel, who called it "Beautiful pop music from the future". The album Barefoot Wanderer has been described as, "one of the year's most disturbingly beautiful creations".
History
In 2005 the band were signed by Kitty-Yo, the Berlin-based mother label of Peaches. Later in that year, they unleashed the Black Barbie picture disc vinyl and a full-length debut album entitled Pure Breed Mongrel. Jahcoozi have released 3 full-length albums in total as well as numerous releases including EPs, Picture Discs, remixes, features and a Japanese album. They have released music on labels including Kitty-Yo, Asound/K7, Playhouse, NinjaTune, Citizen Records, Crosstown Rebels, 1965, WMF Records, and Hydra. Barefoot Wanderer came out in 2010 on Ellen Alien's Berlin-based imprint BPitch Control.
Individual projects
Producer Robot Koch also produces and performs as a solo artist under his own name and works as a songwriter and producer for many different artists internationally. Sasha Perera co-wrote and sang the song 'Silikon' featured on Modeselektor's album Hello Mom! and on Thom Yorke's iTunes playlist in 2007.
Collaborations
Jahcoozi have collaborated with and been remixed by a number of artists, including Modeselektor, Siriusmo, M.Sayiid, Barbara Panther, Ramadanman, Ikonika, Stereotyp, Asian Dub Foundation, Guillermo.E.Brown, Oliver $, RQM, King Cannibal, Mochipet, Rustie, Buraka Som Sistema, Missill, Stanton Warriors, Lexie Lee, D-Double, Tinchy Stryder, Lethal B, Kano, JME, Skepta, Ata + Sasse, Cassy, Luomo, New Flesh, Infinite Livez, Alhaca Soundsystem, Sukh Knight, Milanese and Kalbata. Jahcoozi's music has been used for games such as Grand Theft Auto and FIFA and has been featured on compilations such as the Wire Magazine Compilation or We Love Techno. The band has played at the televised opening of the IFFA Athletics World Cup at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, the Expo in Shanghai and at club institutions like Fabric in London, Rex club in Paris or Montreal's electronica oriented Mutek Festival. Jahcoozi travelled to Nairobi in Kenya to participate in a music exchange project called BLNRB alongside other Berlin-based electronic musicians Modeselektor and Gebruder Teichmann.
