Frederic Galliano

b. 23 December 1969, Grenoble, France. The DJ, producer and remixer Galliano blends West African roots sounds with the styles of contemporary dance music. He played drums and keyboards in a jazz group for three years and then started to work as a DJ. He first heard African music listening to late night shows on French State radio and was drawn to the rootsy, traditional style of artists such as Oumou Sangaré. Galliano initially began remixing African music in order to supply himself with modern dance-friendly African tunes to play in his DJ set. Founding his own Frikyiwa (pronounced Freaky Wah) label, he released a series of 12-inch singles containing tracks by West African artists. The tracks were collected from the vaults of the highly respected Paris-based world music label Cobalt, and remixed by various dub, house and drum ‘n’ bass DJs. The first Frikyiwa release featured Neba Solo with one side produced by Galliano and the other by Jeff Sharel. However on subsequent releases Galliano acted only as artistic director, choosing the track and the remixer. In spite of this, Frikyiwa has developed a strongly identifiable sound, in which both the traditional African elements and the electronic dance beats are strong and uncompromised. Frikyiwa Collection 1 is a compilation of nine of the tracks which originally appeared on 12-inch single, including excellent remixes of tracks by Nahaw Doumbia and Lobi Traoré. It was followed by a second volume of remixes.