Eric San, AKA Canadian hip hop artist Kid Koala, has been quietly making genius, trailblazing work for decades. The polymath, whose previous projects have included DJing, mixing, playing, producing, composing, creating puppet theatre, animation, the interactive Satellite Turntable Orchestra, and graphic novels, now returns with a new double album and a board game. Of course, he’s not making it easy for himself, playing 26 instruments, mixing them with old and new tech, and pressing it to vinyl himself.
Is the new album any good then? Of course. We’re in safe hands with San. As befits The Kid, Creatures takes his usual, wildly eclectic cut and paste approach, squeezing bizarre sounds out of unlikely sources. It’s the usual playfulness as well as rigour, a blending of film soundtrack references, retro sounds and futuristic cut-ups. So sweeping strings can be looped, chopped up and discarded as he sees fit, leading to spooky, low-end bass riffing and beats morphing into sci-fi drones with shades of Morricone (Once Upon A Time In the Northeast) into ska -cum-scratching (Jump And Shuffle) then catapulting full-tilt into frenetic cartoonish jams (Things Are Gonna Change which features Lealani).
Highlights include the aforementioned Jump And Shuffle, Robohotel and closer ‘Til We Meet Again (Live at the Natural History Museum) all of which showcase The Kid’s vast musical landscapes. It’s like the best virtual mix tape, a leap into a road trip with no map, but the finest DJ around. That San created this himself is astonishing, yet unsurprising for an artist who, after thirty years, is still making music on a different level to so many artists. And then, there is the board game…