Kraak & Smaak

Consisting of production trio Oscar de Jong, Mark Kneppers and Wim Plug, Kraak and Smaak’s impressive performance and studio career have seen the trio consistently create refreshing records and outstanding dj and live moments during extensive global touring across Europe, in the USA, South-America, Asia and most recently, China.

Establishing themselves with a distinctively warm and uplifting sound across genres as disco, funk, electronic, indie, deep house, soul and even pop, Dutch crew Kraak & Smaak’s vibrancy was first introduced to the world via their debut album, 'Boogie Angst'. With the buzz it created, their performances in The Netherlands quickly lead to invitations to play at Europe’s biggest festivals as well as crossing over to the U.S, highlighted by dates at SXSW, Coachella, and Miami's WMC.

The second album, 'Plastic People' dropped in 2008, and it’s hit single 'Squeeze Me' helped secure an international audience, gain the band significant media attention as a “Must see live act” and subsequently saw the trio take the stage at Glastonbury, Lowlands in the Netherlands, and Europe's biggest festival, Sziget. During a five-week live tour across the USA, Kraak & Smaak performed at Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show on ABC television as well as a month-long Australia tour and stepping on remix duties for Jamiroquai.
In the following years, the upward trend of Kraak & Smaak continued with the release of the albums 'Electric Hustle' (2011) and 'Chrome Waves' (2013), featuring artists such as Romanthony (who’s single was transformed by Solomun into a deep house classic), again Ben Westbeech (Breach, The Vision) and funk legend Lee Fields. The trio embarked on a demanding schedule of international live and DJ tours, including career highlight shows at Detroit Movement, Glastonbury and Serbia’s Exit Festival, while new remix work followed as well, for instance for Moby, Aretha Franklin, Chromatics and Royksopp.
Kraak & Smaak’s fifth studio album ‘Juicy Fruit’ (2016) was a return to the organic sound of their debut and embraced stunning contributions by the now established, but talents at the time, Parcels, but also Mayer Hawthorne. Released the year after, ‘Juicy Fruit Remixed’ gave a new outlook on the tracks by producers they admire, and effectively rounded off the album campaign to give way to work on new material.
Next, alongside global touring duties, 2017 and 2018 saw the release of one-off singles for Exploited, Spinnin’ Records, Future Disco and the first K&S releases on their own imprint, Boogie Angst, plus a DJ mix compilation for Toolroom’s Poolside Disco series.
Released at the end of 2019, their most recent, sixth album, ‘Pleasure Centre’, saw them building further on the sound they laid down with ‘Juicy Fruit’, but again exploring new territory with fresh approaches to West-Coast and 70’s and 80’s sounds and joining forces with up and coming artists as Izo FitzRoy, The Palms and Satchmode.

Official website: www.kraaksmaak.com