King Electric

King Electric are Chris Isepp and Peter Hartwig. Their first musical attempts were made at the end of 80s / beginning 90s. These two young fellas first met each other during the upcoming and flourishing Viennese techno scene back in '92. While Peter was touring with the well known noise-pop band the Basket Boys, Chris made his first attentions as Electro DJ & Producer. Due to new influences the Basket Boys soon split and Peter founded BASK with his old band mate Manny Montana; which within a few years opened the way from an Underground live act to an official recording contract. Since the albums "Dark Monkey Moods" (1997) and "World Slow Down" (1999), the band finally are considered as pioneers of the Vienna Downtempo School. At the same time, Chris stopped his own musical career and started as the editor of the "trailblazing graphic arts / technology magazine" (MTV, 1994) ENVELOPE. The magazine reached, especially in Germany and Japan, cult status and still is regarded as the first German-language print media, which united electronic music, graphic design and multimedia. In the hot Indian summer of 2000, after several studio sessions together, the pair decided to join forces and founded "Sultans of Swing". The first single "Summer Breeze" was surprisingly successful, received very good reviews in the press (DJ MAG, DE: BUG, etc) and was represented worldwide in club & radio charts due to its "charming 70s MFSB Phillysound". It was followed by further releases on their own label, Top 10 Records, and various remixes for other artists...a few weeks before release of the album, Chris and Peter decided a radical change of musical style, thus renaming the band "King Electric". The "Sultans of Swing" album was never released. 2009 the first "King Electric" single "Da King" is a wave synth-disco freak show immersed in the world of fairground kitsch and circus glamour. The Radio Mix was also available on the FM4 Sound Selection 20 (feat. MGMT, Animal Collective, Franz Ferdinand, Placebo, etc.) and peaked #5 at the official Austrian compilation charts (+ #29 @ Austrian Indie charts). The trashy video clip with the two clowns was even presented as part of the Diagonale 2010 (Festival of Austrian Film). 2011 "King Electric" are back with the electro-funk smasher "Commit Yourself" (# 12 @ Austrian Indie Charts)! With the B-Movie Hijack Theme, style "Quentin Tarantino kills Egon Zimmermann, the guys proving once again their sense of humor and a lot of autonomy in the pop business. "Commit Yourself" and "Da King" are the first two releases of the upcoming album "King Electric", for which Peter and Chris have brought some guest musicians together. The album will bring a lot of surprises: the songs present a wide variety of styles - from psychedelic-funk to lo-fi, from electro pop to dub. The instrumentation largely consists mainly of funky minimoog, rowdy MS20, noizy organs, various drum machines and Pete's Telecaster...loaded with good quality selection of samples and tape experiments. It is conceived as a declaration of faith in songs with a fearless use of hedonistic hook lines, spiced up with citations from the voluptuous treasure trove of the musical past and present. "The new tracks are just other examples of our definition of pop music. We started again because we wanted to see how far we could go with that. Our Album will be a pocket full of quotations of our lives and all the music we love." (Interview: Radio Altroverso, Italy) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.