Kid 606
Why I Love Life EP
(Tigerbeat6)
You know, this is one of the reasons I still find myself coming back to Kid 606. Even though he sometimes abuses my ears with brutal doses of noise and puncturing sound, he also has a sensitive side, and honestly you never really know what he's going to do next. Granted, there's something about having groups that act like well-worn blankets, that you can come back to with every release and be greeted with open arms, but the fun with Kid 606 is that you don't know whether he's going to hug or bitch-slap you.
That might sound like a pretty horrible thing to say, but given the warmth of PS I Love You and the top 40 gabber destruction of his latest The Action Packed Mentallist Brings You The Fucking Jams, it's also a fairly fitting assessment to make. As the calm following the storm of that last disc, How I Love Life is a collection of 7 tracks that run just under 20 minutes, and fit onto one of those charming little 3" CDs.
With 6 multi-toned pictures of what looks like a reclining Britney Spears on the cover, I wasn't sure what to expect (more rampant smashing of Top 40 artists?), but when I put the little disc in my discman and sent it spinning, I was greeted with the fluttering layers of warm electronics of "Sad Motherfucker Part One" and just a slight edge in the form of static hiss. "When I Want Something New" takes more fractured and digitally tricked-out sounds (this time in the form of a piano) and layers them over a slightly chunky beat and some CD skippy noises and more static. "Love It Like You Stole It" arrives as the harshest of the tracks on the release at the EP midpoint, but even the somewhat piercing bursts of static and digital chirps seem tame compared to the usual outbursts.
The release closes out with three short tracks, including the short meanderings of "Longer" and the clipped vocals, squelched electronics, and stuttering beat of "Frenchkiss." The album closes out with "Sad Motherfucker Part Two," and more organic instrumentation (this time in what sounds like a bass guitar) creeps through the glitch alongside more of the same shimmering tones that were in the first track. It's a pretty closer, and if it weren't for the clipping noises, one would be hard pressed to figure out that it was even Kid 606 behind it all. It's a short release from a highly prolific artist, but instead of being a short tossed-off affair, I actually enjoy it more than some of his other work. Fun.
Rating: 7.25
