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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Stefan Kozalla began his musical career as
the rapper of German trio Fischmob that released Maenner Koennen seine Gefuehle nicht Zeigen (1995) and Power (1998) before adopting
the moniker Adolf Noise for his dj operations and the solo albums
Wunden S. Beine Offen (1996),
Deine Reime Sind Schweine (2001) and
Wo die Rammelwolle fliegt (2005).
At the same time he joined another trio, International Pony, that released
We Love Music (2002) and Mit Dir sind wir vier (2006).
He debuted his new persona DJ Doze on
mixtape All People Is My Friends (2004) and the official album
Kosi Comes Around (2005), devoted to
ambient and minimal techno with
chilling dance
tracks such as My Grandmotha. The highlight, however, is
his legendary ten-minute instrumental Brutalga Square, that abandoned the
languid "minimal" aesthetic for a frenzied Afro-Brazilian orgy.
He became famous for his remixes:
Matthew Herbert's It's Only (2012),
Moderat's Bad Kingdom (2014),
Lapsley's Operator (2016),
Michael Mayer's For You (2017),
etc.
His remixes were collected on Reincarnations (2009) and Reincarnations Pt. II (2014).
The 80-minute album Amygdala (2013)
recast him as a digital singer-songwriter
and offered an
elegant and relaxed take on techno, but turning it into a faceless product
for cocktail lounges with spineless ballads like Track ID Anyone
and idyllic shuffles like the gently jazzy Magical Boy.
Nices Woelkchen is a hybrid of Giorgio Moroder's disco-music, soul balladry and ambient house, and
the hypnotic minimal dubstep Marilyn Whirlwind borders on minimalism.
Half of the album is devoted to
lengthy instrumentals (or at most hummed tracks) such as
Royal Asscher Cut, drenched in a nostalgic feeling.
The peak of soothing elegance comes with the
Caribbean undercurrent of the soft, ethereal tap dance La Duquesa.
Overall, it's a monotonous experience, but DJ Koze has certainly perfected
the art of production the same way that
Steely Dan perfected the
art of the pop-soul song in the 1970s.
Equally elegant was the eight-minute drug anthem XTC (2015).
Knock Knock (2018) was even less inventive, happy to recycle
house and pop stereotypes in Pickup, hijack
ambient house in Bonfire and
gloomy industrial techno in Seeing Aliens.
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