Chinese-Canadian turntablist Kid Koala is hardly a biter. Courtesy of Ninjatune.net

A Friend Indeed

By Herden A. Daza

Thickly layered samples, laced with comical snippets and stretched tautly over a variety of groovy beats, serve as a backdrop for Kid Koala's latest vinyl-manipulation, "Some of My Best Friends Are DJs." Fresh from the studio sessions following his tour for his first solo joint, the performance-art piece, "Nufonia Must Fall," the Kid also shares a piece of his mind via the printed page again, this time enclosing a fifty-page comic illustrated by the DJ.

Replete with jazz references, the whole album speaks at length about the Kid's knowledge of the genre as well as his musical upbringing as a classical pianist. Setting the tone for the album, the second track, "Basin Street Blues," morphs from innocuous squawking into a soulful, jazzy cornet wafted carefully over a hiphop drum track. Bringing things upbeat, Kid Koala continues his foray in scratching on jazz with "Radio Nufonia" before getting technical with the break-heavy "Stompin' at Le Savoy."

Kid Koala's second full length "'Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs" will be released Oct. 7, 2003. Courtesy of Ninjatune.net

Other tracks that are sure to catch the listener's attention include "Skanky Panky", a mélange of guttural saxophone and funky organ stabs all manipulated to a bouncing bass line. Always good for a laugh, Kid Koala sets up the track "Flu Season" with the premise of "…what it would sound like if two sick DJs met and talked on the street," interspersing various sounds of people coughing between breakbeats. Taking a candid listen on some conversations while a casual piano riffs in the background, "Elevator Hopper" makes use of vintage comedy routine involving an elevator bellhop. On "Annie's Parlour," the most modern sounding track on the disc, the DJ scratches over horns while a bluesy piano bangs in unison to an up-tempo series of blips, bringing to mind the trudging, mechanical pulse of a metropolis.

Also packaged with the disc is a fifty-page book drawn by Kid Koala. It is best enjoyed from the vantage of a comfy chair positioned somewhere between the stereo speakers, although one need not synchronize with the album in order to read the comic. Inside, the reader happens upon a slice of life in Nufonia, the world created by Kid Koala in his first solo outing, jumping about from one temporal location to the next and shifting around from the point of view of at least three Nufonian citizens.

In this piece, the endearing tales of a guy trying to give a smoker-babe a light, an irate radio listener's attempt at a phone-in contest, and a senior citizen with more than a few tricks up her sleeve are detailed with humor and a sharp wit. The clean lines, the subtle uses of black, white and grey, and the well-shaded block figures convey the weight of the urban drag convincingly. Connoisseurs of the DJ's previous album, "Nufonia Must Fall", are sure to recognize the style and setting of these vignettes, but newcomers will find intimating themselves with the microcosm as easy as reading the panels.

Set to debut in the first week of October, Kid Koala's latest endeavor, "Some of My Best Friends Are DJs" looks poised to start the new season off right, fitting finely in the spirit of the fall.

September 12, 2003