At the forefront of the growing French electro scene along with Justice, Para One, Sebastian and Surkin, Yuksek is a purveyor of sleazy, synth-heavy tech-hop. A hybrid sound created from the techiness of electro and the rawness of hip-hop, and brought together over powerful baselines directed straight at the dancefloor.
 
Solo with machines and a microphone, Yuksek returns to old school origins without ornament, using dry acid sounds, electro-techno beats, and stop and start breakdowns - stompers with one foot in hip hop, the other in techno, straddling a rough and noisy DIY texture.
 
Behind Yuksek is Pierre-Alexandre Busson, not yet 30, trained in piano from an early age and on to the national academy, from there onto hip hop and techno explorations. From 17 to 24 he was a DJ at the heart of the Databass Collective, a mysterious underground techno activist crew, travelling to Japan, Mexico, Germany, Sweden and Denmark. He later renamed himself Yuksek, and become more established as a solo artist.
 
His first 12” was on the pre-2003 Friendship Salad, released on the French tech-house label Hypnotic Music, run by ex-Superfunk member Fafa Monteco, and was followed by Fool Da Groove (2003) on the same label. But it was his productions and remixes released on I'm A Cliché, Rise & Relish that really made his name, playlisted by Pedro Winter, Andrew Weatherall, Freeform Five, Mylo, Laurent Garnier, Justice, Detect among others.
 
On the rise since 2004, he’s played many gigs in France (Nouveau Casino, ParisParis, Panik, Point Ephémère, Zoo Bizarre in Bordeaux), often in good company (Hextatic, Birdy Nam Nam, Munk), and abroad (MEG festival in Montreal). As at ease with his records as with his machines, he’s also DJed alongside Chloé, DJ AÎ, Mylo or Cosmo Vitelli in evenings at the Palais de Tokyo and the l’Elysée Montmartre.
 
Yuksek is also the hidden man behind electro-rock combo Klanguage, whose first 12'inch The Message was released on Rise Recordings on last January.
 
> www.yuksek.org
> www.myspace.com/yuksek
 
Appearances:
> CTM.07 > À BOUT DE SOUFFLE