UP Live IV Profile: DJ KALI
KALI is a Persian-born recording artist, music producer and DJ based in Berlin, Germany. After being rocked by the German DJ duo of Schlachthofbronx, comes yet another German DJ set to rock UP Live IV.
Since 2004 she has produced music under her birth name of Maral Salmassi, but with her transition from Techno and Electro to what she calls “Bolly-Tech” (a combination of Trap, Hip-Hop, and Ghetto-Tech influenced by traditional Bollywood and Maghrebian music) came a new identity, KALI.
Traditionally, Kali is the Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, transformation, and motherhood - three things that describe KALI’s music well. As a Persian artist who lived through the violent political transition of her home country, she draws from her personal background to form an identity as a strong, independent Middle-Eastern woman who’s not afraid to voice her opinion. She aims to inspire and empower women around the world through her unique blend of various music styles presented with feminine sensitivity and passion, and topped off with her signature dose of masculine intensity.
That greater inspiration she will re-live on stage during UP Live IV: Off The Rails this Saturday, 11 July at the Nairobi Railway Museum.
Her music career began in 1997 when she founded the Cologne-based Techno label Konsequent, on which she released music by artists such as Jay Denham, Cari Lekebush, The Advent and Claude Young, among others.
After many other successes, including projects on her Art Of Perception label with Jimmy Tenor, Zombie Nation, Mike Ink, and Andrew Weatherall to name a few, 2006 brought the beginning of Television Rocks, a label she co-founded with Fabian Stall not only as a platform for both artists’ solo projects but also numerous releases by their friends Fukkk Offf, The Sneekers, The Sexinvaders and Tenderlions, among others.
A few years later (2010) Maral’s single Let’s Rock the Party, a collaboration with Hamburg-based artists Fukkk Offf, became a massive club hit and jumped to number 2 on the Beatport charts. In 2011 she formed the DJ team Return of the Amazons with Melissa Logan of Chicks on Speed.
Since then, Maral has been working hard to reinvent both her musical identity and direction. The transition from Techno to Bolly-Tech is only the beginning and so far the result is the badass, hard-hitting, yet sincere and playful KALI.
At Ksh 2500 a ticket, the opportunity has never been greater to have a grand, boisterous and disturbingly good time at one of Nairobi’s oldest icons the National Railway Museum.
Find KALI on twitter here. She is also on Facebook, Instagram and has a great website.
