Over the years, Kixnare has made his way from classic 90s-style hip-hop to modern electronic club music. The 2013 album Red is a sign of this change. If, on the earlier albums – his previous record appeared three years ago - hip-hop was predominant, this time it was substituted by almost pure electronic music. From the IDM-like, almost ambient sounds of the track Echo, which opens the album, through the catchy tune Gucci Dough that is accompanied by a popular music video, to the sharp, broken composition No More and the slightly milder number The Eraser with its humming bass.
In the latter two compositions, polyrhythms are what stands out – these polyrhythms are built in such a way that sometimes openly synthetic sounds blend with natural ones and ones that imitate natural sounds. The artist from Częstochowa has kept his love for intense, penetrating bass from his hip-hop period. He eagerly makes use of keyboard synthesizers. He also uses short vocal samples which form abstract words or sentences but also polyphonies and melodies. From these samples he often constructs specific calls and responses. The human voice is just another instrument to him. He seldom hires vocalists for the songs he makes for himself.
Soul, funk and R’n’B also fascinate Kixnare. Since he self-released his album Class of 90s, a homage to the classic sound of the 90s, he has been considered one of the best hip-hop producers in Poland. From the beginning he wanted to reach a bigger audience than the national one. Its possible to get the impression that lately the construction of formally perfect compositions is becoming more and more important to him. They not only develop from a kind of exposition through its development an ending, but they also seduce the listeners and lead them forth. Where to? To the dance floor and into the streets, as this is urban music, but that’s only a part of the answer. Kixnare makes great music for listening to, which is up to date with international productions. He knows what’s going on in club music, but his skilfulness enables him to continue to be an important and desired figure in hip-hop.
He has collaborated with, amongst others, Eldo and Grammatik, Smarki Smark and Pjus. Kixnare has produced amongst others Duże Pe’s fine record Zapiski z życia na terytorium wroga. One of Kixnare’s numbers was even included on a compilation from the series Offensywa, even though this series consists of albums prepared by Piotr Stelmach from Polish Radio which chiefly contain compositions of indie rock bands. He remixed, amongst others, a song by the Polish pop band Newest Zealand. His music was also featured on the cult compilation Niewidzialna nerka, which is a contemporary look at the first years of Warsaw hip-hop. He participated in the series Rap History Warsaw. He also leads workshops for young producers. On his own, he releases limited vinyl editions of his old hip-hop backing tracks (“White Instrumental Series”).
Author: Jacek Świąder, May 2014
Translated by: Marek Kępa
Discography:
2007 – Class of 90s (Instrumentals)
2009 – Kollage Volume 01 (Instrumentals)
2010 – Digital Garden
2012 – Digital Garden Remixed
2013 – Red
The artist’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kixnare
Links:
https://soundcloud.com/kixnare
http://kixnare.bandcamp.com/