General Elektriks - Corne de Gazelle (feat. Leeroy)
HervĂ© Salters, a French national and vintage keyboard player, was playing keys for various artists in Paris (Femi Kuti, -M-, Vercoquin, DJ Mehdi, etc.) before he moved to San Francisco in 1999. He started working on what would become General Elektriks as he was moving to the US. Once in California, he soon became associated with the Quannum Projects collective (Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, etc.) and started sessioning for them. He invited Quannumâs own Lateef The Truthspeaker and Chief Xcel on a few tracks, then completed the 1st General Elektriks album, Cliquety Kliqk (2003).
After touring behind the album, Salters joined Blackalicious in the studio to work on The Craft and toured with them for over a year. Concurrently, he formed San Francisco trio Honeycut with singer Bart Davenport and drummer/programmer Tony Sevener. Quannum Projects released their critically acclaimed 1st album, The Day I Turned To Glass, in 2006. In 2007, the General Elektriks song âTime To Undressâ was chosen to be featured in the Woody Allen movie âCassandraâs Dream.â As he was touring with Honeycut and laying keys down for more artists (hip hop group Lifesavas, Brazilian artist Curumin, beat maker Jel, hip hop group the Mighty Underdogs, etcâŠ.), Salters started working on a second General Elektriks effort. Good City For Dreamers showcased a more organic sound than its predecessor, blending sampled/programmed drums, live keyboards, horns and strings in a more seamless fashion; it also featured more of Saltersâ singing. Released in 2009, the record was spearheaded by the single âRaid The Radioâ and led to an 18 months tour.
Salters then co-produced L.A rapper Pigeon Johnâs album Dragon Slayer and got back together with his Honeycut counterparts to work on a second effort, âComedians.â He also wrote and produced the soundtrack to a gangster TV miniseries for French network France 2, âLes Beaux Mecs.â Salters started working on a follow up to Good City For Dreamers during the winter of 2011. Written, arranged and produced in 4 months, Parker Street came out in the fall of 2011 and digs deeper into the organic blend of Funk, Pop and Jazz of its predecessor.
Salters moved back to Europe during the Parker Street tour and settled in Berlin in 2012. The same year he teamed up with Blackalicious producer Chief Xcel to form Burning House. Showcasing a mix of Xcelâs programming artistry and Saltersâ keyboards, their album Walking into A Burning House came out on French label NaĂŻve in 2013. After co-producing Pigeon Johnâs 4th studio album âEncino Manâ (2014), Salters started working on a follow up to Parker Street. He concurrently wrote the music for a TV miniseries on Franco-German network Arte, âParisâ (2015), and the same year co-wrote the soundtrack for French movie âArrĂȘtez-moi lĂ .â Saltersâ 4th studio album as General Elektriks, To Be A Stranger, came out in the winter of 2016. Brazilian singer CĂ©uâs Tropix album, which Salters had co-produced with Brazilian drummer Pupillo, came out later that year and went on to win 2 Latin Grammy Awards (Best Portuguese Language Contemporary Pop Album and Best Engineered Album).
Salters and his live band recorded various shows from the âTo Be A Strangerâ tour, which resulted in the live album Punk Funk City (Fall 2016). The band line up on Punk Funk City was still the one that Salters had assembled in 2009 at the time of Good City For Dreamers: Jessie Chaton on electric bass and synth bass, Jordan Dalrymple on drums and MPC, Eric Starczan on guitar, Touski on vibraphone and drums, and Salters on Clavinet/Fender Rhodes/synth. The band also joined Salters on some songs on his next album, Carry No Ghosts, which came out in the winter of 2018. The line up changed during the following tour as Jordan Dalrymple left the band and was replaced on drums and MPC by Toma Milteau.
