Khan of Finland’s NICHT-NUR-SEX is the first release of 2017 to mark the year of Shitkatapult’s 20th anniversary and acts as the initial record of a line of special artist releases from Si Begg, T.Raumschmiere & C. Brötzmann and many more of the labels associated artists.
NICHT-NUR-SEX is a user profile on a literally gay forum named Gayromeo that’s serving the purpose of organizing its users needs for fleshly pleasures. The transvestite’s user name is programmatic, has an explicit meaning: it’s more than sex! That breakthrough in superficiality appearing also proclaims Khan of Finland aka Can Oral – artist and real name go hand in hand. Of course it’s about sex. There’s more than that, though. The title previews an album that forces bystanders to take a deeper look but it also clearly states: Khan’s musical aesthetics are glamourous! Dub-like pop packed with samples and alienated voices – a musical tradition leading back to Grace Jones and Marianne Faithfull in their Island Records era of 80/81. We’re able to hear moaned phrases, phrased moaning…artificial ejaculation!
NICHT-NUR-SEX creates a melange of an intense life-style, here the untamed before-and-after finds a musical counterpart as well as the in-between finds a starting point. Even the album cover is held in a similar fashion: The archive of Khan’s snapshots mirror our voyeurism so we finally recognise we’re most intrigued by picky details found in the hidden. Between fragments and snapshots secrets unveil, obsessions materialize. And desires dance as in ‘H&M Freedom’ depicts various forms, shapes and conditions of dependency in today’s world of consumerism.
Khan’s a page that’s got to be written from both sides – showing it’s fidgety character in music and pictures: the Berlin based artist produces, sings every so often, remixes, releases his own records under his Finnish moniker or as a member of a band named Wild Style Lion. He has recently formed a bridge between electronic and guitar music with the aid of J. Mascis and Kim Gordon. He has been a club owner in NYC, organized events at the infamous Berghain, plays theatres and travels with Goethe.
With a host of organic collaborations Khan has invited a legion of guest artists: Joe Volume, swinging between Tom Waits and Michael Gira, performing the cinematic character of the album with his narrating voice, Mexican rapper Alemán, focussing his fiery solar beam onto Khan’s productions, Julia Kent, cello player of Anthony & the Johnsons and finally the very present Icelandic musician Urður, known from GusGus featured on three tracks. Through Khan’s arrangement a diverse interdependency of emotions is created compiling the ten tracks into a listening-album where a soundtrack can be found. A soundtrack for our sexuality – and basically everything in between!
Tracklist
01 // ALLEY CAT SAID (feat. Joe Volume)
02 // KHANT BUY ME LOVE
03 // TO THE LIMIT
04 // FUNKY DOLLAR BILL (feat. Urður & Alemán)
05 // SHOULD I GIVE YOU UP? (feat. Urður)
06 // H&M FREEDOM
07 // HOLD ME TENDER (feat. Urður)
08 // NADA
09 // VOODOO ME
10 // HUNDRED MILES
All songs written and produced by Khan of Finland. Published by Random Noize Musick / Budde Music