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Elyas Khan: Home

Welcome to Elyas Khan's Website!

Let's get straight to it - you want to hear and you want to see... for the rest, please feel free to dig deeper... there is A LOT of info on this site! (for instance this new journal goes all the way back to 2001!)

To start you out, here's a small selection of videos featuring Elyas and also his band Nervous Cabaret:


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Hanging out at the World Beatbox Championship 2009 - June 1, 2009



Got a note from NYC beatboxing pal Adam Matta last week. The Beatbox Battle World Championships were being held in Berlin this year, he was about to hit the city and suggested I come down. I checked out the various promo videos out on youtube and was happily surprised to see that old friend and lower east side alumni Kid Lucky who was hosting this year.

Kid Lucky and Adam Matta Backstage

Adam Matta,Kid Lucky,BeatBox,Berlin

Great news, I hadn't seen him in a number of years and he certainly was not expecting me to show up. Suffice is to say that major manly squealing and fits of laughter accompanied by spasms of festive hugging ensued as we caught sight of each other. We recalled the old days when we met in Tompkin Square park, smoking, drinking, prepping for for the Sidewalk Cafe open mics or taking our instruments and following the legendary likes of Sabir Mateen and Daniel Carter around the city and into Queens to tour and jam at an assortment of rent parties, gallery openings, weed spots, subway platforms, bars and happenings. Sabir and Daniel would take their saxophones and play up to five different events a night back in the day, sometimes for not a dime. These guys had played with Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sonic Youth and never lost faith in music and played as mentors to a countless numbers of young enthusiastic musicians who flooded the city every year. I was thrilled to learn that both were doing very well and touring all over. The worst and toughest part of their long careers being well behind them.

Elyas and Kid Lucky

Elyas Khan,Kid Lucky,Berlin,BeatBox

Kid Lucky clipped a three day pass on my lapel and we were off.

Adam was getting his breathing together and demonstrated some wonderful Egyptian Orchestral beatboxing he'd been working on. I was floored. This was going to be fun. The competition was split into three categories: Men, Women and Group. There were fifty people in the mens alone which would eventually be cut down to 16 and then the finalist over a period of three days. Here are some pics of the first day. My camera was at the studio so I had to borrow another. No video I'm sad to say. Look up the youtube page etc... for updates and results. Adam was up first and he smoked 'em.

Adam Matta OnStage

Adam Matta,Berlin,BeatBox

I'll be catching up with Lucky in Prague. Peace!

Met this BeatBoxer named DAQ - real nice guy.

DAQ,BeatBox,Berlin

Nervous Cabaret on Rear Window Radio - May 29th through June 4th - May 28, 2009



Woah!!! Super link-heavy post, but I just had to do it because I want to save everyone the time of having to google each band... NERVOUS CABARET is once again in the playlist of REAR WINDOW RADIO. These guys are based in Toronto and many of the artists they play are also Canadian so I KNOW all my Canadian friends are going to wanna tune in! (although their playlist is actually pretty international).

This playlist episode airs from FRIDAY, 29 MAY (AKA TOMORROW), until June 4th. Go ahead - have a listen!
The playlist (in playing order is):

Green Cup & The Dudes - In The Morning
Entire Cities - Talkers
Aaron Stout - The Coronation
Kill the Lights - Nation of Introverts
Pedestrian - Brain on a Stick
The Audiovisuals - 1986
Kurran and the Wolfnotes - Your Four Limbs
Casper and the Cookies - Yer Birthday
Spanish Prisoners - Ask Isaac Asimov
Say Ah! - Beggar's Ballad
Johnny Nobody - This is Falling Apart
The Craft Economy - Big Purse, Lil' Dawg
Love in October - Soft Errors
Built By Snow - Something in 3D
Mississipi Kings - What's Going On
Johnathan Wynn - Everything is Alright, Everything is Ok
Twilight Hotel - Highway Prayer
The Tiger & Me - The Forsaken Few
Stations - Narcissus Poeticus
The Antlers - Two
Viarosa - Poor Man's Prayer
Maneli Jamal - Cold Arrival


NERVOUS CABARET - GRAND PALACE OF LOVE


Maps of the Night Sky - We Were Young
A Place to bury Strangers - Ocean
Parlour Boys - Lovers
After the Weather - Shark Song
The Paint Movement - Faults
Ume - The Conductor
Black Hat Brigade - Castlevania