Khan

An original Structure label group artist with dozens of releases on Köln-based imprints such as DJ Ungle Fever, XXC3, Eat Raw, and Pharma, N.Y.C.-based experimental electro producer Can Oral is the man behind an array of pseudonyms. Recording most often as 4E and Khan, Oral's discography is also littered with such monikers as Bizz O.D., Gizz T.V., El Turco Loco, and Fuzz DJ.

One of only a handful of European producers to move to the U.S. in order to jump-start the dozing underground, Oral includes New York's Temple Records (the store he opened under Manhattan's Liquid Sky Clothing), as well as record labels Temple and Liquid Sky, among his ongoing commitments. The brother of Air Liquide's Cem Oral, Can was (along with artists such as Mike Ink, J. Burger, and Biochip C's Martin Damm) an active contributor to early Structure labels such as Blue and DJ Ungle Fever, the center of the German acid/techno explosion during the '90s heyday of experimental acid and techno. Can began recording as 4E after moving to New York (the name was the address of his first flat, which doubled as his studio), and has since released a number of EPs and full-lengths as both 4E and Khan, most notably on Force Inc./Mille Plateaux and his own fast-expanding Liquid Sky, Home Entertainment, and Temple labels. Stylistically, Oral treads closest to experimental hip-hop and electro, fusing gritty 303 chirps and smooth electronic atmospheres with kicking, midtempo breaks constructed from familiar drum sounds and patterns.

His 1996 debut for Liquid Sky sister label Home Entertainment, Blue Note, was ambient electro in the vein of B12, Jonah Sharp, and Autechre/Gescom, with none of the more caustic resonances that defined his earlier, more dancefloor-friendly work in evidence. Oral also operated and played at the weekly club Killer, and worked on material with noted experimental/ambient composer Tetsu Inoue. Released in 1997, Silent Movie, Silver Screen was his first album for noted New York label Caipirinha. Two years later though, he signed a contract with the indie rock imprint Matador and released 1-900-Get-Khan. Passport followed in early 2000, and No Comprendo was issued the next spring on Matador. In 2007 he released the Who Never Rests album on the Tomlab label while 2008 saw Who Never Rests Remixed Vol.1 become the first release on the artist's own imprint, I'm Single. Keeping with the theme of the label's name, his releases were either singles or EPs for the next few years, then The Enlightenment Machine arrived on the label Album Label in 2014. The album featured drones and loops inspired by Brion Gysin's hallucinatory device The Dream Machine. ~ Sean Cooper