KID BE KID
Video
About
Whatever metaphors and superlatives one may use, and even if it is a well used cliché: it is really very difficult to describe the music of the phenomenal Berlin artist who is calling herself KID BE KID. She really is a sensation. Listening to KID BE KID while she is simultanously singing and beatboxing, playing the piano and synths, is simply breathtaking. How does she do that? Where is this incredible power coming from? With such an effortless certainty of style?
Speaking of which: It is by no means only just one style that she can be pinned down to. KID BE KID blurs genre
boundaries playfully and fluidly. There are jazzy pianos, funky R&B grooves, clubby sci-fi synth pads and electronic patterns, and on top: her expressive soul vocals. Great pop with an exclamation mark. Think The Internet, James Blake, Alica Keys, Thom Yorke and Rhazel from the Roots. Except that with KID BE KID, everything visibly flows out of one person’s body all at once.
Her latest single “A Room To Dance” is as well her debut release for outernational label FUN IN THE CHURCH. “My body is too weak, too fast is my heartbeat, my soul is too weak and my whole breathing ain’t deep” she is singing, while the accompanying video is set in an abandoned quarry where we watch her looking for a free space and individual expression to a merciless marching bass drum in dance moves conducted by the choreographer Alexander Miller: At first she seems restless and obstructed in her rehearsed movements until she eventually is grooving her way into some kind of NFT hyperpop parallel world created by Berlin visual artist Markus S Fiedler. Eventually, KID BE KID frees herself in her imaginary mothership and together we all lift off.
Wow! Is this the future of soul? Future soul? Another well used genre term. With KID BE KID it could actually fit.
Press
“What Kid Be Kid will delight audiences with is not only a consummate grasp of piano/vocal balance but also a truly unexpected twist on just what the human voice is really capable of. The carnival “one-man-band” sideshow of yore has been reinvented for the new millennium and Kid Be Kid has achieved something rare these days: true originality.”
– Pure Grain Audio
“You hear the typical KID BE KID sound made of accomplished beatboxing, vocals appearing like samples, broad synth sounds, acoustic piano, and deep bass lines. A finely assorted rhythmic puzzle depicting deep feelings.”
– A Room
“Kid be Kid is a Berlin based pianist/vocalist/beatboxer and a rising star in Germany. Her performance is based around her excellent piano playing and soulful singing. She throws in elements of just about every genre which could be very chaotic but actually she pulls it off brilliantly. She is a very likeable performer engaging the audience from the outset.”
– Jazzwise (UK)
“To describe Berlin musician, singer and producer Kid Be Kid’s music as simply alternative or “futuristic” R&B would be far too reductive. Sure, it offers a new take on the sound — with its robotic synth washes, off-kilter beatboxing and unpredictable rhythms — but there’s more to it than that. […]
The German polymath manages to blend an almost punk approach with jazzy arrangements and flourishes, capped off with a haunting piano line that emerges from the mix and ultimately guides the track to its conclusion.”
– Complex
„KID BE KID does not follow the rules when it comes to music she creates.“
– Exit Through Sound