Preview
KID KOALA
Thursday, October 16
Night Gallery
With a second studio album under his belt and a sophomore jinx nowhere to be seen, not only has he proven his talent is to be reckoned with, but it seems Eric San (a.k.a. Kid Koala) is now ready to embark on the rest of his career.
With his new recording Some of My Best Friends Are DJ’s, Kid Koala has married his talent and his musical style into a cohesive listening session. While his inaugural album, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was an extravaganza of sampling and highlighted his amazing beat juggling-abilities, as a collection of coherent tracks it seemed disjointed, something that Some of My Best Friends Are DJ’s corrects.
"I would agree with that," says San. "I was trying to do so many things, and I think I let my vision of the tracks overtake the album. I’m proud of it, but I really spent so much time on each track that an album wasn’t fully on my mind. I just wanted to get all these ideas onto a record."
The second album confirms that San’s career and beat-juggling prowess is still in full swing and that the next step is going to be well orchestrated, with either his sideproject Bullfrog, as an illustrator, or as his highly acclaimed uber-DJ persona, Kid Koala.
With his new album comes a new vision – or perhaps a reworking of his vision for the Kid Koala experience. San is now touring in support of this album with a well-oiled collection of turntablists that, when assembled together onstage, comprise a band, each playing samples and parts of the music on turntables.
"The idea is to establish interplay," says San, "to make a band with DJ’s, that is as fluid and malleable as any live band but still play my kind of music."
Imagining the logistics of this alone is enough to boggle the collective mind, but for San, it’s just another part of the process.
"I wanted to assemble something that could recreate but not replicate the live music experience in its traditional form."
Joining Koala on this leg of the tour is P Love, DJ Jester and Lederhausen Lucil. Koala notes that an undertaking like this is only possible with the help of a supportive record label. In fact, what he is attempting could only be done on the back of Ninjatune, a label that has a history of constantly re-envisioning this style of music and, in the process ,music as a whole. Their support for their artists’ endeavours and, in particular, Koala’s, underscore the label’s commitment to broadening the aural palette of the dedicated – something needed now more then ever as the industry puts progress on hold in lieu of more commercial enterprises.
"Certainly there has been a waning of sorts when it comes to this industry, but Ninjatune seems to always be a step ahead, even if it isn’t as lucrative as it could be," says San "I know that there is still a tremendous amount of interest in a different vision for music." Koala is being modest – a far more lucrative pursuit would see him remixing and reworking today’s hits, which would certainly raise his profile and increase the size of his bank account.
"Well, I wouldn’t be happy doing that, I don’t think I could get the same satisfaction doing something I’m not proud of," he says.
As an added bonus, Koala’s Short Attention Span Tour, will be a soft-seater. The Night Gallery will bring in seating for the front of the stage at the behest of Koala, in an attempt to enhance the experience, and change the way people interact with a DJ. Koala’s reasoning for this is simple: "I think my music is more for listening, it’s not so much a dancefloor experience as it is an aural one. Put it this way, –when I think of dance music, I don’t immediately come to mind and I want people to be able just to sit and listen to the band." |
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