Equator by Jeneral Kai

Other platforms: https://bfan.link/tic26

My first encounter with Jeneral Kai’s music dates back to 2018. I was diligently going through the pile of promos sent to me by an agency that specializes in small, cash-strapped labels and self-releasing artists from the outskirts or the Global South. Although often as conventional as anywhere else, I occasionally found a bit of freshness, honesty, and lateral thinking that made me want to keep an ear out, just in case.

The reward came that year with “Sixty Nine” by a certain Jeneral Kai. Part of the renewal of electro happening at the time, the single stood out. Unusual melodies and vocals created a mysterious vibe.

Shortly after came “Busy Buzzing” and “Telematch.” OK, so this Jeneral, adept at sophisticated electro, also knows his raw, physical house scales inside out while contributing to the emergence of a mental and hypnotic global bass? But who is he, where does he come from? The next title, “African Chinese,” gave a hint.

Jeneral Kai is the stage name of Gabriel Chong Kai Han, born in Singapore and based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pioneer of Southeast Asia’s club scene, Gabriel began as a hip hop turntablist. In 1988, at the age of 15, he repped his native country at the DMC World DJ Championships in London. He then discovered house and techno, and opened Kuala Lumpur’s first electronic music record store, Singles Shoppe. He founded a DJ collective and organized parties where numerous international artists played for the first time in Malaysia. Gabriel started music production later in life and co-founded the label Turn It Up Recordings in 2017, leveraging his vast experience.

This is where the culture and depth heard in his music come from. The rage too: being a pioneer means being determined, ready to fight. But the real reason is that Gabriel is a musician at heart. His music grooves, it’s inspired, his melodies linger in your head.

Jeneral Kai’s releases kept coming, exhilarating. Noticing my rave feedback, Kuree, his partner who co-founded and manages the Turn It Up Recordings label where he releases his music, thanked me via SoundCloud. I took the opportunity to ask Gabriel to make an album for my label, Micronautics. He accepted with enthusiasm. The idea was to select his best tracks, re-edit, and remaster them to create a coherent whole that tells the story of Jeneral Kai and captures the essence of his music. We got to work.

But the Covid crisis was cruel for musicians. Lockdowns and the spectacle of police violence awakened buried mental afflictions. Finances dried up. The disease killed. Gabriel passed away on July 7, 2021. It was a shock. Kuree went into mourning. The album project was put on hold, as was my label. We couldn’t find the strength to dive back into it and complete it according to the artist’s wishes until this year.

“Equator” will be Jeneral Kai’s testament. It is also a wonderful invitation to discover the rest of his discography. The seven tracks on the album are arranged to form a crescendo towards an orgiastic trance, conducive to self-abandonment and spiritual transformation. Jeneral Kai’s unique melodies, percussions, and polyrhythmic programming, infused with the Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Indonesian cultures that collide in this part of the world, enrich dance music. Gabriel Chong Kai Han, the pioneer, will be remembered as one of the first musicians who wanted Southeast Asia to join in this universal movement of liberation that is electronic music, the one that makes us dance, love, and transcend.

Christophe Monier
(records under the name The Micronauts and runs the Micronautics label)

Leftfield by design

Sounds by Daft Punk, DJ Pierre, Adamski, Blaze, John Tejada, Kings Of Tomorrow, Timmy Regisford, Honey Dijon, S3A, Ark, Cosmo Vitelli, Moisees, Mirwais, The Micronauts, etc.

micronautics.net
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