The blues is the wellspring of American popular music both figuratively (as a source of inspiration and influence) and literally (as a source of raw materials constantly plundered by young artists). What's interesting is how consistently this remains true even as popular music changes in pretty radical ways. The progression from Robert Johnson to
Jimi Hendrix is relatively continuous and logical -- but from Robert Johnson to
Moby? This album from DJ
Kid Koala bridges a gap even wider than the one
Moby jumped for his highly influential album Play: while
Moby embedded samples of field recordings into his house and techno pieces, with
12 Bit Blues Kid Koala is taking almost the reverse approach. Using a sampler to fold, spindle, and mutilate old blues recordings, he embeds technology into his source material. In the interest of keeping the sounds raw and fresh,
Koala decided against using any sequencing software; instead, he multi-tracked layers of samples, manipulated them, then added final tracks of scratching and cutting over the top. The result is full of familiar elements, but very odd juxtapositions: despite the frequent incursion of virtuosic turntablist flourishes, there are no breakbeats and there is little that can reasonably be called "funky"; the voices and guitar sounds are archetypal, but in many cases they are also radically deconstructed. This is the kind of album that
Skip McDonald might make if he were a DJ rather than a guitarist. It's intriguing and at times vaguely unsettling. ~ Rick Anderson