In Maurice Sendak’s classic picture book “Where the Wild Things Are,” little boy Max is sent to his room without supper for being mischievous. Expecting to find only boredom and confinement, Max ends up discovering a wonderful world of monsters and adventure growing out of his imagination. In the spirit of mystical quests and unexpected destinations, Dutch four piece band C-Mon & Kypski loaded up their gear into a big van, grew grizzly beards and headed to the wild backcountry of Morocco to record their third album. The end result (appropriately titled “Where the Wild Things Are”) is an irresistible blend of organic beats, fiery riffs, and exotic sounds inspired by and emanating from “the wild.” It’s difficult to classify their sound, but if you were to imagine DJ Shadow, Beck, Gogol Bordello, Fela Kuti, Super Furry Animals, and Justice crammed into a similarly sized van and left to collaborate, you’ll be on your way to understanding what C-Mon & Kypski is all about.
C-Mon & Kypski began as the hiphop/turntable act of long time friends Simon Akkermans (C-Mon) and Dutch turntable champion Thomas Elbers (Kypski). The pair released their debut album “Vinyl Voodoo” in 2003. Shortly thereafter, the duo decided to expand into a full band, adding Daniel Rose on guitars and Jori Collignon on keys. Their second album “Static Traveller” (2004) was well received and helped introduce the band to many new musical friends, including acclaimed saxophonist Benjamin Herman (New Cool Collective), rock band Voicst, the Amsterdam Klezmer Band and rapper Pete Philly, all of whom were invited to collaborate with C-Mon & Kyspki on their latest album, “Where the Wild Things Are” (2006).
In the year that followed, C-Mon & Kypski toured the Netherlands extensively, closed the showcase festival Eurosonic/Noorderslag and played the Netherlands’ two biggest summer festivals: Pinkpop and Lowlands. After their performance at Pinkpop, the crowd chanted for more than five minutes, even though headliner Marilyn Manson was supposed to start immediately after. The press applauded the band’s performances and they realized it was time to share their music with the world.
C-Mon & Kypski participated in several prestigious international festivals, namely CMJ (New York), SXSW (Austin), Popkomm (Berlin), and Oppikoppi (South Africa), the last of which landed them a record deal with One Minute Trolley Dash Records CC. As a further testament to their creativity and desire to try new things, the group designed an exclusive sneaker in collaboration with Nike SB that was released in stores June 2007 in Europe and Asia.
At the start of 2008, the band returned to the Noorderslag Festival as a headliner and then embarked on a big tour of the Netherlands including three very special shows in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven. These shows, entitled “Circus C-Mon & Kypski” included incredible visuals and a host of special guests to create a colourful and exciting menagerie reminiscent of circus performances. But the band has even bigger plans, as C-Mon will tell you: “We can do so much more than we could do a few years ago, but in our dreams we hope to have three Daft Punk-like pyramids on stage. One day, we will have men in fireproof suits on stage during ‘Wild Fire’!”
In 2008, C-Mon & Kypski will be touring Germany and the United States (among other destinations), release a live concert DVD recorded at ‘de Melkweg’ in Amsterdam, and begin work on their fourth album with an expected released date sometime in early 2009.
