DJ Koze Vinyl, CD & Tape

System criticism and party tracks

Born in 1972 in Flensburg, Stefan Kozalla, alias DJ Koze, was making waves in the local scene as a rapper and record producer in the early 90s. He quickly secured the second place in the German DMC competition as a DJ. At the same time, he and his friend Stachy founded the Daily Opressors to give space to his English-language lyrics in a project. In Hamburg, they then met the duo TBC Attack and united to form a quartet named Fischmob – the humor-laden rappers were partly responsible for turning the port city into a hub for German rap in the 90s. Ey, Aller was the first single that spread in the underground, and in 1995, the debut LP Männer können seine Gefühle nicht zeigen was released. It featured social criticism and system critique alongside party tracks with a touch of Hamburg humor. This caught the attention of colleagues from Fettes Brot: they invited DJ Koze and his bandmate Cosmic for a feature – one thing led to another, and soon Fischmob were opening concerts for Die Ärzte. The four of them delivered an explosive follow-up in 1998 with Power: the album mixed funk, electro and experimental rock with their hip hop tracks, but in the same year, it was all over for Fischmob. DJ Koze, together with Cosmic and his friend Erobique, then embarked on a new band project called International Pony.

With an extra serving of soul

The successes of Fischmob and International Pony hardly deterred Koze from pursuing his own solo ambitions. In the ‘90s, the scene-DJ came up with numerous remixes that found their audience in places like the local Pudel Club. Besides his usual pseudonym, you could also find the name Adolf Noise on one or the other record. After the first album Wunden, s. Beine offen in 1996, the mix album Music Is Okay was released, bringing together his creations that had appeared here and there. These ranged from hip hop to techno and delved into the experimental electronic niche. While working on funky dance beats with International Pony in the early 2000s, Sony’s subsidiary Columbia knocked on the door – and shortly after, they released the first International Pony record We Love Music, which came with an extra serving of soul and turned the most chaotic ideas into a coherent whole. This was followed by the remix album Bass Is Boss and Mit Dir sind wir vier in 2006 before the project also came to an end. In the meantime, Kozalla released his second mix LP All People Is My Friends with the Kompakt-label. He was also sought after at international festivals and performed, among others, at Coachella, Tomorrowland, and Melt.

Irritation and Psychedelia

“I am interested in irritation and psychedelia. In confusion and surprise,” says DJ Koze about the seriousness of his music, which some see in contrast to his name. The precise execution of his deliberate genre-breaking is evident in albums like Wo die Rammelwolle fliegt and Kosi Comes Around: the ever-present humor doesn’t mean that Kozalla isn’t serious about it. The founding of his own label, Pampa Records, proved his status – in 2013, his album Amygdala was released on the label, being the first of his securing its place in the national charts and earning him the critics’ prize at the 2014 Echo Awards. He garnered worldwide recognition with his contribution to the renowned DJ-Kicks series a year later, and his 2018 album Knock Knock draws from the beats that are made in his usual offbeat way, paired with several R&B vocal giants as guests. He also remixed the track Humility for Gorillaz, and he appears on Marteria’s 2021 album 5. Dimension. DJ Koze’s long-standing work and his genre-crossing creative diversity make him a respected figure in various scenes: “I don’t belong anywhere, and I turn necessity into a virtue. I am my own island.”