Kraak & Smaak are a trio of music producers from the town of Leiden, the Netherlands consisting of Oscar de Jong, Mark Kneppers and Wim Plug.
In 2003 a first couple of singles are released on the UK label Jalapeno Records. Interest from Radio One DJs Annie Nightingale and Pete Tong leads to airplay and the recording of a DJ guest mix for the BBC. Several remixes for UK artists such as Mark Rae and dj tours across the USA and Australia follow suit.
The debut album ‘Boogie Angst’ is released in 2005/6 in the UK, Benelux and Japan and a band is set up to be able to play live alongside the DJ sets. During 2006/7 their shows will take them to major international festivals such as Pinkpop, Sziget, Austin’s SXSW, Miami’s Winter Music Conference, Bonnaroo, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Australian Good Vibrations and on a first small club tour in the US. A number of support slots are also played for Faithless in that period. Supported by Jason Bentley of US radio station KCRW the album is re-released in the US by Quango Music and various tracks find their way into American television series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Men in Trees and What About Brian?
”The Remix Sessions” is released in early 2007 and includes reworks for Jamiroquai and Kruder & Dorfmeister. It also includes a remix of ‘Man Of Constant Sorrow’ from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? movie by the Coen brothers.
In 2008 their second artist album is released, ‘Plastic People’. In the USA, album and single are released by Ultra Records. The first single off that album, ‘Squeeze Me’, featuring UK singer Ben Westbeech, is a hit in the Dutch pop charts and receiving lots of radio and video rotation worldwide, and is used in a major TV ad for download service in the US, Rhapsody.
The video by Dutch director Andre Maat, with its ‘flip book’ theme wins support from US celebrity blogger Perez Hilton (describing their music as ‘Amy Winehouse meets Moby’) and rap artist / producer Kanye West and picks up various awards. Top BBC Radio 1 dj Annie Mac asks Kraak & Smaak to record a minimix.
The renowned international dance magazine IDJ describes Kraak & Smaak as a “Must see act”, alongside names such as the Chemical Brothers, Moby and The Prodigy. Building on that qualification, during 2008 Kraak & Smaak play the Glastonbury Festival, Bestival, Bloom, Lovebox, the The Big Chill festival and club shows at The Cargo and The End in the UK, the Rothbury Music Festival in the US, Lowlands in Holland and again the Sziget festival. During their US live tour at the end of 2008 they perform live on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC television. In January 2009 the EU sponsored European Border Breakers Award is won, alongside UK vocalist Adele. The award is presented at the Eurosonic festival in Groningen, during a television show hosted by Jools Holland.
In 2009 and 2010 new US dj and live tours follow, with nation-wide shows in clubs and on festivals such as the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Rothbury, Coachella, Detroit Movement, Wakarusa in Arkansas, and so forth. New remixes follow for Sander Kleinenberg, Sam Sparro, Fedde le Grand, Maxwell, and Darwin Deez.
K&S’s third album ‘Electric Hustle’ is released in May 2011, which includes features by legendary US vocalists Romanthony and Lee Fields but also UK Bluesman John Turrell and Dutch female vocalist Janne Schra. California’s KCRW Radio once again takes the Dutchmen under their wings and supports the album by daily playlisting it heavily. The setup single from the record – Dynamite – becomes the most added electronic record at American college radio in early 2011 – beating Daft Punk. Next single Let’s Go Back feat. Romanthony is climbing the steps of the international dance community with radio play in the UK, Germany, Italy and Holland and top listings on the world’s #1 dance music webshop Beatport.com. Another dj tour across the USA is completed in October.
On the remix front in 2011, more established and upcoming artists are reworked such as Moby, Aretha Franklin, Imelda May and Caro Emerald. And during Summer 2011 K&S play across Europe extensively again, visiting Glastonbury and Big Chill festivals in the UK and Exit in Serbia a.o.
Early 2012 the third single Hold Back Love is released, of which especially the Lovebirds remix picks up a lot of international heat from both fans and dj’s, and K&S’s steady Beatport chart climbing is continued with another dancefloor orientated Kraak Beats EP (Volume 2) release in April.
In June the album Mixed Feelings, a dj mix and compilation of new track, remixes for others + Electric Hustle remixes is released, hitting the #3 spot of the CMJ Chart in the US at the start of release.
Both dj sets and live shows find their way through Europe again throughout the Summer of 2012, with dance, pop and jazz festivals in the UK (headlining Beat-Herder festival), Holland (Extrema Open Air), Russia, Hungary (Sziget festival), the Czech Republic (United Islands festival), Romania, Switzerland, Croatia a.o..
In July K&S are guest mixers on Mark Knight’s Toolroom Radio show and find themselves back again in the Beatport charts with their remix for Solomun’s Cloud Dancer (which brings them to a total of 7 tracks in the Beatport Charts in 2012 so far).
Early 2013 brings new releases with Kraak Beats Vol.3, the track ‘Hit the Club’ on Sander Kleinenberg’s THIS IS label, and a widely acclaimed unofficial remix for US outfit Chromatics, ‘Kill for Love’ finds its way to global blogs in February.
In March the first official single off the new 2013 album will be released. ‘The Future is Yours’ features again Ben Westbeech on vocals and gets picked up quickly by Pete Tong, the DIYnamic crew and Maya Jane Coles a.o.