Intrigued by the production elements of dance music, Kerri expanded to creating his own grooves on his one man label Express Records. In 1991 Atlantic Records signed his debut single, 'Superlover/Get It Off', starting Kerri's journey to greatness. Subsequent releases including the 'Atmosphere EP' on 157 Shelter Records and the seminal 'Raw Grooves' demonstrated Kerri's determination not to compromise his unique sound for commercial gain.

A chance meeting in 1990 with Harlesden-based Mel Medalie of Champion Records led to a special partnership which saw Kerri open his own Madhouse Records imprint in 1991. Cuts like 'A Basement, A Red Light And A Feelin'' and the 'Finger Printz EP' were to follow, establishing Madhouse as a quality label. Kerri celebrated Madhouse's tenth anniversary in 2001 with the release of his '10 Years Of Madhouse' mix compilation. In addition to extensive releases on Madhouse, Kerri released tracks on labels including Strictly Rhythm, Wave, South Africa's Freetown imprint and King Street Sounds, for which he started the successful 'Trionisphere' series. In 1998 Kerri established yet another label, this time with friend and partner Dennis Ferrer. Sfere Recordings was created with the aim of exploring the varying sounds of soulful house including Brazilian, Gospel and Jazz influences. Sfere released a collection of high-quality 12" cuts including Third Generation's 'You Don't Live Here Anymore', the pair's own 'The Lost Tribes Of Ibadan' volumes one and two and Kerri's 'Brooklyn (Where I Live)'.

Kerri prays before making a record, and injects his free spirit into his productions. With a solid education in garage grooves, Kerri takes vocals, rhythms and instruments and, with uncanny precision, pieces them together, delivering beautiful, uplifting tracks. He has remixed the work of Ultra Nate, Anastacia and Byron Stingily to name a few and recent releases including 'Bar a Thym/Sunshine & Twilight' and 'Sunset' on Nitegrooves, 'Return 2 Acid' on Large, and 'A Demo By 6:23' have further reinforced Kerri's reputation as a true master of house.

CARTOON

n eight-piece Cork collective is probably enough to have any man, woman or child not hailing from the real capital running for the hills, but Cartoon are the embodiment of the new generation of multi cultural Irish musicians, vocalists, instrumentalists, DJs and producers.

Cartoon began as a collaboration between Corkonian producers Bob Jackson and Darragh OﾒConnor. OﾒConnor was meddling with music from an early age and founded his own band, Fusty, post leaving cert ﾖ pre engineering. Having discovered acid jazz (in the ways that most people did in the nineties...), OﾒConnor and various rotating members of Fusty went on to play numerous sets at The Cork Jazz Festival, a monthly residency at Dublinﾒs Globe, released a double vinyl EP on US house label Siesta Music and completed a self booked tour of Germany before developing a distinct hatred of Weissbier and returning home.

All the while, Jackson was developing an annoying drum habit and a fondness for soul and funk, which combined with jazz (and lots of acid..) created a lethal concoction of house. Jackson formed and played with many bands on the Cork scene and soon came up trumps with The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, who were invited to record for the Acid Jazz label in the late 90ﾒs and released a number of records. Always looking for new drumming angles, Jackson fell for the sexy swagger of the Afro Cuban sound and headed to the US and Cuba to soak up the beats and the Havana Gold. A new lover entered Jacksonﾒs life ﾖ The MacG4. He embraced the sleek machine and set up a studio love nest. With a masters in Music Technology from the University of Limerick, now proudly framed atop his mothers mantelpiece, Jackson began producing, recording, mixing and mastering.

At this juncture Cartoon emerged. Jackson and OﾒConnor began working on a demo for Fusty, formed a common musical bond and decided to continue to work together. Five months later in February 2003, Cartoon did a release deal with DJ David Duriezﾒs hot Parisian label Brique Rogue. Their debut EP, First Break, a funk fused house collection was released August 2003. One of the tracks, Time Change, which featured the vocals of Chicago soul diva Karen Underwood, became a massive underground house club hit in France and has to date featured on a number of house compilations. The Flute of The Forest EP came next and a double pack of both EPﾒs was also released.

Yearning to escape the studio and take their slick soulful acid house jazz to the live arena, the duo felt it was time to expand the Cartoon family, and so two became eight - Bob Jackson on drums, Darragh OﾒConnor on keyboards, Jeanette C, Karen Underwood and Barry Fitzgerald on vocals, John Ahearn on lead guitars, Joosep Niimeister on trumpet and Gary Baus on saxophone.

Although relatively young (circa 2004!), the band have been exceptionally busy on the national circuit and can boast opening for big name house and funk stars including Kerri Chandler, Amp Fiddler, English soul legend Omar and Londonﾒs favourite acid jazz heads Incognito. Cork welcomed home their newest musical acolytes with open arms and they were honoured with their own headline show at the venerable Opera House on New Years Eve. The gig fast became the hottest ticket in town and was a massive sell out success.

The next step then, an album for the masses. In these days of revolving rock bands, Cartoon are a breath of fresh energy. The lead single, Move On, hits the airwaves in early October and will be available as a free download from www.cartoon.ie from midnight on October 30th. The band hit the tour road with a number of key dates across the country and the album will be racked out in record stores nationwide in February 2006.

KERRI CHANDLER
& CARTOON (LIVE)

Bank Holiday Sunday April 16th @ Crawdaddy/ Doors 11pm
Advance tickets ﾀ20 incl booking fee.
Phone/internet bookings subject to extra service charges.
www.ticketmaster.ie /24hr Hotline 0818 719300
More info www.pod.ie