Kid Koala
“Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs”
(Ninja Tune/Pias)
When “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” announced Ninja Tune’s first North American signing, mix-tape culture was exploding like a teenager’s acne-infested forehead and a thousand and one quick-fire collections of quirky samples and twisted beats surged out of hi-fi speakers the world over. The sound was fresh, innovative and Eric San, the Kid, loaded his mixes with humor and cunning like no other DJ could. He even accompanied his LP with a video game and a comic book he drew himself — a feature he has repeated on this release. But the samples — lifted from ’50s gramophone records with heavy-accented American radio hosts talking about LSD experiments and other obscurities that are taken out of context to raise a laugh — just aren’t funny anymore. Musically it’s like a patchwork blanket your grandma never finishes or a party that never gets started… time for the marsupial-sized jock to hand over the decks to one of his best friends. Out Oct 6
I:Cube
“3”
(Versatile)
Known as much for his modesty as his talent for composing the most exquisite pieces of electronic music you’re ever likely to hear in France, Nicolas Chaix is the 29-year-old Parisian behind the “Disco Cubizm” of I:Cube. “3,” as you’d expect, is his third LP, succeeding the classic “Adore.” This is probably his most poetic to date, with influences drawn from old-school US house to electro-tinged hip hop and dub. Largely instrumental, the production is subtle and refined, a deep sound with echoes of digitally synthesized machines refined to sublime velvet-like textures — although Wu Tang’s RZA roughs up the polished sheen on “Can You Deal With That?” Out Oct 20
TY
“Upwards”
(Big Dada/Pias)
With an ear for a melodic hook and a tongue for a catchy rhyme, TY, veteran MC and hip hop vigilante is back. Following the confessional tone of 2001’s “Awkward,” the South London-based MC continues his quest for truth and value-based living. Like an urban preacher, he takes street culture as his subject matter, littering his sermon with identifiable references to drive home his point. In the process, he’s not afraid to make a parody of himself and the rap game, using his trickiest lyrical tomfoolery to confound us. But like most self-confident mic-controllers, his verse can come on too strong and the last track, “Music To Fly To,” is so self-righteous it leaves the aural equivalent of a bad after-taste — a shame when the rest tastes so good. Out now
I Monster
“NeveroddoreveN”
(Dharma/Discograph)
Sounding like a cult LP from the ’70s, you would be forgiven for mistaking I Monster’s debut for a psychedelic outing by The Moody Blues. Or Serge Gainsbourg. Or Minnie Ripperton. Or anyone who would today be working with people like Jarrod Gosling and Dean Honer, formerly of The All Seeing I. Employing the rather unassuming sound of a grandiose big band surprising a nerdy electronic bedroom-producer lurking in their orchestra pit, the Sheffield duo have superimposed their organic, lyric-based songs on to a backdrop of multi-colored, multi-dimensional sounds. That means there’s a little bit of everything: lavish strings, lusty French female vocals, dashing slide guitars, pulsing rhumba drum patterns, twanging bass lines, hypnotic synth loops, spiralling choral voices, footballer Chris Waddle’s son… You get the picture. Out Oct 20
K.I.M
“Miyage”
(Tigersushi)
A bizarre mish mash of material composed by an alleged eco-warrior sect made up of guerilla bombers Flokim Lucas and Jimmy Bazzouka, although we may be led to suspect that Joakim Bouaziz is something to do with it. Apparently K.I.M members communicate by chanting and undergo a sinner-woman period in their early teens — evidence of which is supported by Edith Piaf’s “Jezebel.” Mmm…? Out now
Pleasure
“Pleasure”
(Circus/Discograph)
Appearances can be deceiving. Justine Frischmann, Ed Harcourt and Cerys Matthews on an album self-produced by an unknown 24-year-old Norwegian called Fred Ball? Sounds unlikely, but such is the eponymous debut from Pleasure — a homage to Rick Wakeman’s Yes. Its immaculate production exudes about as much charisma as you’d expect from the jaded ex-queens of Britpop, but a synth solo from Prince’s original keyboard man Doctor Fink makes “The Visionary” a more than memorable moment in prog-pop history. Even though it sounds like Supertramp on a night out with Air. Out Oct 16
In Brief…
310
“Recessional”
(Leaf/Chronowax)
Trans-continental US abstract hip hop trio present their fifth LP. Their concentric beats remain complex without being over complicated, but are resolutely let down by a lame vocal delivery. Out Oct 16
Chris Korda
“The Man of the Future”
(Gigolo/Cyber)
Leader of the Church of Euthanasia, this original Gigolo artist diffuses his critique of civilized society in the form of musical provocation. Known as the “Marilyn Manson of electro,” he might not be the Man of the Future, but his music could be. Out now
Lizzy Mercier Descloux
“Press Color”
(ZE Records)
After shacking up with Patti Smith in NYC in 1978, the French expatriate recorded this collection of songs in ten days. A precursor of New Wave, it’s a strange, hazy trip back through the ’80s. Out Oct 13
