4E

An original Structure label-group artist with dozens of releases on Koln-based imprints such as DJ Ungle Fever, XXC3, Eat Raw, and Pharma, NYC-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 jumpstart the dozing underground, Oral includes NY'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 Can Oral, Can was (along with artists such as Mike Ink, J. Berger, 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, mid-tempo breaks constructed from familiar drum sounds and patterns. His 1996 debut for Liquid Sky sister label Home Entertainment, Blue Note is 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 operates and plays at the weekly...