General Elektriks is the brainchild of Hervé “RV” Salters. A French national and a vintage keyboard player, RV quickly became the go- to Parisian for “vintage sound,” scoring session work with Femi Kuti, -M-, and DJ Mehdi, among others, before leaving France in 1999 to relocate to the US. Using his favorite keys, a computer and a mic, General Elektriks began as a musical journal that followed RV through his move from San Francisco to Seattle, then back to Berkeley, where he currently resides. It was in the Bay Area that he hooked up with the Quannum crew and started doing session work for them, and it was through Quannum that he also released the first GE record, 2005’s Cliquety Kliqk. Described by URB as “Ennio Morricone for the 21st century,” the album, which also featured appearances from Lateef The Truthspeaker and Chief Xcel, was a mix of vintage funk, hip-hop beats, noir riffs, cinematic arrangements, pop melodies and digital twinkle. And people caught on: besides a positive press response, “‘Tu M’intrigues” was used in commercials for Mercedes-Benz’s E Class and Ralph Lauren’s Notorious perfume, while “Time to Undress” was played in Woody Allen’s 2007 film, Cassandra’s Dream. After touring behind the album, Salters joined Blackalicious in the studio to work on their third full-length, 2005’s The Craft, and also joined them on their accompanying tours. Concurrently, he formed the trio Honeycut with singer Bart Davenport and drummer/ programmer Tony Sevener, and Quannum released their critically-acclaimed debut, The Day I Turned To Glass, in 2006. As he was touring with Honeycut and laying keys down for more artists (Lifesavas, Lyrics Born, Curumin, Jel, the Mighty Underdogs, to name a few), Salters started working on a second GE effort. Completed in the fall of 2008, Good City for Dreamers is a multi-dimensional, multi-cultural recording that puts the French expatriate in the growing ranks of artists who are citizens of the world, of artists who create sonic landscapes that feed as much on their origins as they do on their travels. It’s RV’s own take on psychedelia, one where future soul, old-school pop, sampling, indie rock, hip-hop and free jazz sparkle as they collide. Live, General Elektriks – comprised of a five-piece band, led by Salters – consistently sells out shows across Europe. With plans to tour the US in the fall of 2009, North American fans will finally have he chance to see what La Blogotheque describes as “…the power to bring dead people back to life, to make walls tremble, and to make hips sway…Salters loses 3 liters of sweat per show and dances and jumps around without interruption… General Elektriks was here and turned the club upside down, and their music is an excitement without precedent,” and TRAX Magazine says “…the GE 5-piece makes the temperature rise and turns the spot into a Turkish bath... ...On top of being a talented musician, Salters also turns out to be an exceptional dancer, with legwork worthy of a boxer. A true keyboard hero, he is the Angus Young of the Clavinet.” Cuting-edge French label Discograph (Coralie Clément, Dimitri From Paris) put out Good City for Dreamers in Europe and Japan in February 2009, and the album will be released by Quannum Projects in North America on September 22, 2009.