Kraak & Smaak on ‘Velvet Seas Remixed’, Two Decades of Evolution and Keeping the Groove Moving
- Undrtone Blog
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
After more than two decades together, Kraak & Smaak have reached the point where evolution no longer means abandoning what came before. Across seven albums, Oscar de Jong, Wim Plug and Mark Kneppers have built a sound rooted in funk, disco, soul and electronic music, but flexible enough to absorb new influences without losing its identity.
That continues with Velvet Seas Remixed, a new companion to their 2025 album Velvet Seas. The original record was shaped between Leiden and Los Angeles, and that contrast between home comforts and creative disruption became an important part of its character. Get your copy here.
“Back home we have all the inspiration coming from our record collections and of course the studio where we invite befriended musicians and do our thing with the vintage gear we gathered over time,” they explain.
Los Angeles offered something different.
“Once in a while you just have to get yourself out of that comfort zone and then L.A. is the place to be for us. There is something that you can only find in the City of Angels.”
It was less about chasing a Californian aesthetic and more about the working culture they found there.
“For us it’s just the session culture and the openness of L.A. musicians and songwriters, and the willingness to work with total strangers, that makes the difference.”
That openness fed naturally into the remix project. Rather than treating Velvet Seas Remixed as a simple extension of the original album, Kraak & Smaak wanted each producer to pull the music somewhere new.
“We always have a list of personal favourites,” they say, pointing to Harvey Sutherland as one artist they were particularly keen to involve. “But generally we try to sense whether an original might fit the particular sound of other producers.”
The results span several different club cultures. Yuksek brings a bright Nu Disco energy, Ray Mang stretches the title track into a dubby disco workout, while Diogo Strausz pushes ‘Travel Light’ towards Brazilian funk.
“Yuksek always delivers great Nu Disco club remixes and you can trust Ray Mang to come up with a moody and dubby version too,” they say. “And Diogo Strausz’s version of ‘Travel Light’ just oozes with Brazilian funk vibes.”
Despite the variety, they resisted over-directing the remixers.
“The vocals are an important part of our tracks nowadays, so it would be great if they take that into account,” they explain. “But of course you ask them precisely because of their own input.”
That freedom has made the project even more eclectic than the original.
“Ha ha, it seems that the more eclectic, the better!”
Ray Mang’s version of ‘Velvet Seas’ became one of the clearest examples of that philosophy. His remix strips the track back while allowing Izo FitzRoy’s vocal to remain at the centre.
“Ray Mang is a long-time favourite of ours as well, and it didn’t disappoint,” they say. “Stripped-down, Balearic and laid-back funky, while Izo’s amazing voice gets as much space as possible.”
That balance between their own identity and the personalities of collaborators has become a recurring part of Kraak & Smaak’s process. Velvet Seas brought together artists including Izo FitzRoy, Butter Bath, Kosta G and The Undercover Dream Lovers, but finding the right voice for a track can take time.
“That’s always difficult, finding that balance between maintaining your own sound but also being open to influences from outside,” they explain. “But at the same time that’s what keeps the work interesting.”
The process often starts with demos before the trio begins searching for the right collaborator.
“That could take months and months, but in most cases we find them just before we go or when we arrive in a city like L.A.”
Their relationship with funk, disco and soul has evolved just as much as the way they collaborate. Early Kraak & Smaak records were built heavily around samples pulled from their own collections.
“We started out with sampling everything from our private collections, which resulted in the first couple of 12 inches and the first three albums.”
Over time, that gave way to recreating those textures themselves through vintage synths, studio equipment and a lot of experimentation.
“We discovered how to make that sound that was so close to our hearts ourselves.”
That evolution is still ongoing.
“We are at the point right now where we want to explore more songwriting, but at the same time get deeper into the world of electronic music.”
After more than twenty years, the internal dynamic has also changed. In the early days, all three members spent almost every studio session together, but the scale of the project eventually required them to divide responsibilities.
“After we gained some success, of course we had to divide our tasks, everyone doing what he’s best at. DJing, playing live, travelling, doing interviews, making remixes, running a label and delivering new music.”
The fact that the partnership still works after two decades is something they clearly value.
“Here we are, still going strong.”
When asked which moment most changed the scale of Kraak & Smaak, they point to ‘Squeeze Me’.
“You just felt something was going to happen, but not really what,” they recall. “If you look back, that was indeed the watershed moment for us.”
The live show has become another important extension of the project. Rather than forcing every studio track onto the stage, Kraak & Smaak treat the DJ sets, albums and six-piece live band as related but distinct entities.
“They all have to live and work under the same musical umbrella, but when a song doesn’t work in the live set, we don’t feel forced to play it.”
Sometimes the solution is to rebuild it.
“We always try to make alternate versions or play remixes of it, and that’s exactly where we are now. Amsterdam Dance Event 2026 is coming, so we are in the midst of remixing Velvet Seas.”
That perhaps sums up Kraak & Smaak better than anything else. After more than twenty years, the project continues to move because nothing is treated as completely fixed. Albums can become club records, collaborations can redirect songs and old influences can be rebuilt through new technology.
Velvet Seas Remixed is another step in that process, not a look backwards, but another example of how Kraak & Smaak continue to reshape their own musical language without losing the warmth and groove that has always sat at its core. Get it here.
