Album Review: Kid Koala - 12 Bit Blues

Kid Koala has never really done things by the book. A scratch DJ of incredible skill, Eric San has enjoyed exploring the far reaches of those skills, whether that includes making sludgy rock with the boys from Wolfmother, starting gigs that combine headphones, arts and crafts and cups of tea instead of alcohol, or making story books to go with his music. His latest musical project 12 Bit Blues recontextualises the blues in an age of musical technology that the form's early practitioners could never have dreamed of.

But, because this is Kid Koala, there is an enormous amount of respect dedicated to his task. This isn't throwing a couple of Muddy Waters songs over a bangin' house track.

Instead segments of old blues tracks, with vinyl crackles still audible, are clipped, folded in on themselves or given space to roam. Songs such as the beautifully still and quiet 9 Bit Blues gives listeners a new way of hearing the heartbreak and weariness that marked this genre from its earliest days.

Lyrical lines are used sparingly and when they are, they're stretched, scratched or cut up into something else entirely, but the real beauty of this album is the way Kid Koala has managed to embody the spirit of the blues without needing a lot of the overused motifs that now make up the genre's lyrics. Instead the ever-present harmonica, 12-bar blues pacing of many of the songs and smoky, late-night air around the whole thing makes these songs sound timeless.