Jimi Tenor on tehnyt ammattilaisena musiikkia vuodesta 1994, jolloin hänen ensimmäinen soololevynsä Sähkömies (Sähkö) ilmestyi. Sähkömies sisälsi kappaleen Take Me Baby, josta tuli hitti kun se soitettiin Berliinin Love Paraden lopputilaisuudessa 1995. Vuonna 1997 Jimi Tenor solmi levytyssopimuksen Englantilaisen Warp-levy-yhtiön kanssa, mikä nosti hänet laajempaan kansainväliseen tietoisuuteen. Tänä aikana Jimi Tenor Band keikkaili Euroopassa ja Aasiassa, mutta hänen kappaleitaan nähtiin listasijoituksilla myös
Having disbanded Jimi Tenor And His Shamans, the artist embarked on a solo career in the early 1990s, recording his debut work “Sahkomies” on rudimentary equipment in a small New York apartment. The album was released in 1994 on the Finnish imprint Sahko, who also issued Tenor’s sophomore work “Europa” a year later, expanding on the ideas articulated on the first disc.
In spite of the experimental nature and free form of these early recordings, Tenor’s instinctive grasp of pop appeal, his spontaneity and whimsical sense of humour are clearly in evidence.
On the back of a game-changing performance at the Love Parade in Berlin, Jimi Tenor scored his first hit with “Take Me Baby”, entering the charts and signing a deal with the seminal electronic label Warp Records. The three Warp albums – “Intervision” (1997),
“Organism” (1999) and “Out Of Nowhere” (2000) – were touchstones in the electronic club music scene of the period. Effortlessly blending jazz, synthesizer sounds, Afrobeats and drum machine dubs, Jimi Tenor created a distinctive sound which he himself rewired and renewed. Not that his compositions were overly academic, on the contrary – they often resembled free-flowing, sporadic sketches, with an infectiously irrepressible touch of the absurd.