MONDAY MIXTAPE: DJ KAOS
jolly jams
He is the guru of good times when it comes to dance music.
DJ Kaos's singles are tightly constructed affairs, songs that patiently unfurl over seven-minute runtimes. He's certainly restless stylistically, applying a disco sensibility across multiple strands of dance music, but once he settles upon a sound, he inhabits it, effortlessly gliding through peaks and troughs as if it were the only kind of track he knew how to make.
DJ Kaos is a cool and collected fellow, even if he turns out to be a bit of a wild man. He adopted the name Kaos in the mid-'80s, when by his account he was one of the first graffiti painters in (West) Berlin, producing art heavily influenced by the "street culture" of New York City. From there, he moved to London, where in the early '90s, he hung around the studio of legendary producer Cameron McVey and immersed himself in England's blossoming club scene. By the late '90s, Kaos had returned to Berlin and joined with two other journeymen the band Turntable Terranova, an electronic circuit influenced production trio who would be responsible for an early, beloved entry in the prestigious (!StudioK7) DJ-Kicks series.
For the last decade, Kaos has been going at it alone, at least in principle: His first solo full-length album, "Hello Stranger", included collaborations with Erlend Øye, Daniel Wang, The Rapture and The Hundred in the Hands. To state the obvious, Kaos has seen and done a lot of things. And he's still on the move, recently starting his own record label, "Jolly Jams", released quality 12"s from Tiago, Eric Duncan, The Backwoods etc., he's recorded with Manuel Göttsching (E2 E4), comped discs with Liquid Liquid's Sal P, remixed everyone from Roxy Music to supreme underground acts like the Canyons, Felix Dickinson, and is touring the world with a high-flying DJ set.

