Sep. 26, 2012 - Issue #884: Strangelove
12 Bit Blues
12 Bit BluesKid Koala {recordings_bands_mg} 12 Bit Blues {/recordings_bands_mg}
Ninja Tune,
3
Who would've thought, in an era of laptop mash-ups and button-pusher programming, that a guy can still just scratch up a turntable with minimal artifice and offer up just as much of a good time?As the title riff of 12 Bit Blues—an update of the genre's most induring structure—suggests, Kid Koala's first album since 2006's Your Moms' Favourite DJ finds him exploring the blues genre. In a way, it seems the action of letting two circles overlap is a perfect fit: the blues cherishes repetition and reinterpretation as virtues, newcomers putting their own spins on old structure, and that seems mimicked today by an increasingly remix-happy digital culture. Koala applying more modern cut-up techniques to the simple, aged beauty of the blues results in a a marvellous slow-groove record.
Almost every song is called "Bit Blues"; if there's a standout, it might be the way "6 Bit Blues" recontextualizes a mournful line—"I feel so lonely"—with timpani rolls and a climax of ghostly wails.
The review copy sadly didn't include what sounds like an even greater treasure here: the "JR Hand Powered Turntable Kit," a DIY construction that apparently will actually let you scratch, without batteries and constructed in simple ways. That's, frankly, so rad: working with the most stripped down of sounds and forms, but that doesn't mean Kid Koala can't still be an innovator. vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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