Virgin Records artist k-os has completed his third album, ATLANTIS – Hymns for Disco, for early 2007 release in the U.S. Already a platinum-plus artist in his native Canada, k-os arrives at U.S. alternative and pop radio as a confirmed rule-breaker. With this deeply expressive new album, k-os claims a place among such genre-blending, out-of-the-box visionaries as the Beastie Boys, Beck, Gnarls Barkley, Lupe Fiasco and OutKast.
Track for track, ATLANTIS – Hymns for Disco emerges as a highly personal work with a breadth of style that is, at once, imposing proof of an uncontainable talent, a salute to the adventuresome taste of his followers, and an in-your-face creative challenge thrown down to songwriters, producers, singers and rappers everywhere.
The first video from the album, “ELEctrik HeaT – the seekwiLL” has been added to VH-1 Soul's playlist as a “Soul Spotlight” video, receiving nearly 100 spins in its first week and 50 power rotation spins the next. It was also featured on FUSE's daily afternoon show, Oven Fresh, during the week of October 16th. When Canadian iTunes debuted “ELEctrik HeaT – the seekwiLL” as “Single of the Week” in mid-August, the track became the most-downloaded “Single of the Week” in history, within two weeks.
ATLANTIS – Hymns for Disco runs through as a series of brilliant, uncategorizable tracks, the first official U.S. single, “Sunday Morning,” “flypaper,” “Born To Run,” and “Black Ice – Hymn for Disco” among the highlights — every one of them addictively rhythmic and brim-full of melody. Also among the album's kaleidoscopically diverse pleasures: an ingeniously mashed-up trip back to day one of pop music's big bang, “Equalizer;” and also “ELEctrik HeaT – the seekwiLL” and “CatDiesel,” both based on classic break-beat loops and old-school rhyming style.
“Valhalla” features guest Kevin Drew of the Montreal collective Broken Social Scene, along with Sam Roberts. A warm vocal vibe taken from American R&B and his own Trinidadian heritage imbues the insinuating beat and vocal of “Mirror in the Sky,” as well as the retro-soul “The Rain,” a stone R&B ballad in the tradition of “It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World” and “Every Little Bit Hurts.” Another celebrated figure in Canadian hip-hop, buck 65, joins k-os for the concluding “ballad of Noah.”
k-os was raised in the suburban Toronto area. He chose his professional name to reflect the “knowledge of self.” He first impressed the local music scene with two singles in the mid-1990s. His second album, 2004's Joyful Rebellion, has now sold nearly double-platinum in Canada, and the single “Crabbuckit” is universally credited as a landmark in Canadian progressive hip-hop. He has shared the stage with such forward-looking artists as India.Arie, Floetry and John Legend – the latter of whom opened for k-os before a sellout crowd of 16,000 at Toronto's Molson Amphitheater.
His collaboration with the Chemical Brothers, “Get Yourself High,” was a 2005 Grammy nominee in the category of Best Dance Recording, and his first Virgin Records Canada album, Exit, was honored at the 2003 Source Awards as International Album of the Year. k-os also won three 2005 Juno Awards, including Single of the Year (“Crabbuckit”) and Video of the Year (“B-Boy Stance”). ATLANTIS – Hymns for Disco is shipping platinum at its October release in Canada.
Leave a Reply