Since hitting the stage at Parklife 2007 as winners of a triple J unearthed competition, the Kobra Kai have gone on to slots at The Big Day Out, Future Music Festival, Space Ibiza, Stereosonic and Creamfields (2011). Mark Ronson personally ranked them in his top 10 for the 2009 The Lab competition and their list of international supports includes Roni Size & Dynamite MC, Killa Kella, DJ Marky & Stamina, Concord Dawn, High Contrast, Andy C and most recently, Skrillex (last April).

Hence, it’s fair to say that for Kobra Kai, ‘playing live’ has been where it’s at – so when on Oct 10th they release their self titled debut album (through Foreign Dub Records), there will be more than a few punters paying attention. Teaser first single ‘Your Problem’ has already hit the top 5 most downloaded songs on Australian radio through AMRAP’s Airit Charts.

Recorded in Sydney and mixed by high profile London DJ / producer BK, as Kobra Kai synth and sampler Rehan expains, in many ways it’s because of the bands love of playing live, that their first album is only appearing now:

“At our core we’re a band and playing live is what we love to spend most of our time together doing. Unlike most other electronic artists, we don’t write the album and then put together the live show. Playing in front of crowds with live drums and instruments was the beginning for us. It was the translation into the studio from that, that took a while for us to work out. In the end what we set out to do was produce an album that would complement the live show, represent the breadth of our sound and capture the moment.”

The Kobra Kai sound has been described as Pendulum, Shapeshifter and Skream, all mixed in a bag with Fat Freddy’s Drop and shaken about with a heady mix of dubstep, Drum and Bass, Hip hop and electronica. Again, Rehan explains:

“As music fans we listen to a myriad of genres. Even though it’s obvious we draw from drum’n’bass, dubstep, hip hop, reggae and more, I don’t think any of the album tracks could be a pure form of any of those. You don’t often hear vocals used the way we do in drum’n’bass, and you don’t often hear bass as vile as we drop it in hip hop. But that’s the way it works for us …

All in all, Kobra Kai is both an evolution and a journey, and the underlying theme of the album is centered around movement and transition. At the end of the day we just write music for ourselves really, and try not to take it [writing music] too seriously. We just write stuff that we’d want to hear when we go out on weekends…”

Your sort of weekend music ? Find out for yourself when Kobra Kai launch the album across the country this November / December on their ‘Mind On The Ceiling’ Tour:

Thu 10 Nov The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Fri 11 Nov Uber QLD
Sat 12 Nov Buddha Bar & Restaurant NSW
Sat 19 Nov The Woodport Inn NSW
Thu 24 Nov Mona Vale Hotel, Sydney NSW
Fri 25 Nov Rocket Bar SA
Fri 2 Dec The Cambridge NSW
Fri 9 Dec The Cabbage Tree Hotel NSW
Sat 10 Dec Republic Bar and Cafe, Hobart TAS
Sat 17 Dec Gaelic Theatre, Sydney NSW
Sun 18 Dec The Clubhouse, Canberra ACT