Kidkanevil: My Little Ghost (flau/Project: Mooncircle, 2014)

September 4, 2014 at 8:23 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Kidkanevil: My Little Ghost

Kidkanevil has several albums of abstract, experimental hip-hop on various British and European labels, but for this album he aligns himself with Japanese label flau for something veering a little closer to playful, melodic IDM. Tracks like “Earth To G San” waste no time finding bright, shiny melodies and gloopy, skittery beats, and the sounds of excited children. “Inakunaru” has an intricate, uptempo rhythm and childlike Japanese vocals, with a bit more of anthemic but not quite danceable feel. flau mainstays Cuushe and Cokiyu guest on a few tracks, one each and one featuring both of them together; Cuushe adds ethereal vocals to “Butterfly/Satellite”, Cokiyu’s “Tomie” is a short music box-like instrumental, and then “All Is Not Lost” stretches out past 7 minutes, with more music box-like chiming, hard, crunchy, static-y beats, and more samples of children’s laughter. Bonus track “Tales Of Moonlight And Rain” features samples from Lullatone, and has their familiar digital raindrop melodies along with video game bleeps and micro-thumping beats. The whole album is as charming as anything you’d expect to hear from flau.

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