Track Of The Day 28/9 – Kid Koala

6 Bit Blues

The Delta blues – the real Delta blues – has vanished.

The culture which propelled it has been laid low, buried in the soil from whence it came. But if you look closely at modern music, you can still see traces, hints of what was – like chalk marks under a thinly painted wall.

Kid Koala clearly agrees. The Canadian producer recently returned to the form, loading up an E-mu SP-1200 sampler– with pieces, fragments of old blue songs. Realising that the blues is about the essence, the bare spirit of music the beatsmith decided to explode even that – reducing music to its atomised, fragmentary state.

The results are quite something. New album '12 Bit Blues' was crafted in real time, with Kid Koala substituting a steel plated, resonator guitar for a sampler. Out now, the album is built up from 12 tracks – like 12 bars – and seems to follow the pattern of a journey.

We've chosen '6 Bit Blues' as our latest Track Of The Day. Chopped and screwed, the opening almost recalls early arcade themes while the sloping rhythm and bass lines are straight out of Little Walter's scrapbook. Playing with the mournful vocals, Kid Koala is able to project the past onto the future; far from being re-contextualised, the producer is able to draw lines between the two, inviting us to make up our own minds in the process.

Listen to it now… Grab it HERE.

Right click, 'Save As…'

'12 Bit Blues' is out now.

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