Photo: Press (K-HAND)
Over the course of the last twenty plus years, Kelli Hand has put out so many records under a variety of pseudonyms, it’s impossible to keep an overview. Even more so, the Detroit producer’s music has always covered many different facets of what dance music was, is, and could be – from sample-heavy House leaning excursions to belting Techno and leftfield productions, K-HAND is impossible to categorise. Her contribution to our Groove podcast seems like a pretty straightforward affair stylistically, but blends together Ostgut Ton classics with newer material by Jeff Mills or Russian producer OBGON, thus exploring the richness of the genre that K-HAND herself is one of the true masters of.
In 2015, you also started releasing music through Nina Kraviz’s Trip Recordings. How did you get to know Kraviz and what characterises your relationship with her and her label?
We met doing our Trip event when she arrived to Detroit that year. Nina is my best silent partner-in-crime, she squeezes all the experimental avantgarde type Techno out of me that I sometimes forget about as an artist makes my overall producer catalogue more open and balanced.
You have been quite prolific as a producer recently, but your last album dates 16 years back. Are you still interested in the album as a format – and will there ever be a Detroit History Part 2?
(laughs) Yes, there will be- Just when one least expects it. No exact comment on dates – I do not list dates at all.
Speaking of Detroit, how do you experience the scene of your hometown these days? While a festival like Movement seems to become increasingly popular, some DJs criticise thownerk of infrastructure for regular dance music events.
Not sure about the critisim or haven’t heard. However, I am grateful to not only have an huge fanbase audience in my hometown surrounding areas and the rest of the world that keeps me quite busy.
You regularly host DJ workshops for younger generations, like just recently at Moogfest. What are the most important lessons you have to teach aspiring DJs, especially kids?
Those I rather keep at my workshops. When attending, one will know.
You yourself have a reputation of being a DJ’s DJ. Who however is the DJ that has shaped you the most – and how?
Well, I didn’t have a role model. I developed my own style and my way of doing things that best fit my personality and character as a DJ and, with that said, genuinely and all through divine order. Whereas today I’m seeing tons of new “sync master beat match” DJs pop up and jump into the industry. They have no clue and don’t last most likely because they aren’t suppose to be around in the industry in the first place. It’s all about finding your lane, getting in it at the top when you know what you’re supposed to be doing and not just jumping in because one thinks it’s easy money.
Stream: K-HAND – Groove Podcast 116
01. Malstrom – The Line (Zone)
02. K-HAND – Electrosoul (Acacia/Kerohand)
03. Alex Cortex – Solition (DJ Stingray Remix) (Pomelo)
04. Africans with Mainframes – RB-1 (Bio Rhythm)
05. Boris – Rem (Ostgut Ton)
06. Diarmaid O Meara – Wesley Snipes (Gobsmacked Records)
07. Exium – Early Life (Pole Group )
08. Jeff Mills – Something in the Sky (Axis)
09. Len Faki – BX3 (Ostgut Ton)
10. OBGON – Print on your Face (PG TUNE)
11. Leiras/Sleeparchive – Beginning of Visions (Own Life)
12. Vedomir – Supremantism (Marcel Dettmann Remix) (Dekmantel)
13. Ricardo Garduno – Textures (Keith Carnel Remix), (Drowned Records)
14. Oliver Kucera – Groen (Diarmaid O Meara Remix), (Green Fetish Records)
15. Function – Obsessed (Echocord Colour)
