David Chatenay
Just a great collection of incredibly playful, slick, Japan-influenced b a n g e r s. A really solid follow-up to "My Little Ghost".
Favorite track: Coin Game ft Nakamura Minami.
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Laptop beat geek kidkanevil returns from an extended 'behind the scenes' hiatus with a new independent imprint 'Studio Gsan' and a brand new album, 'BUBBLE'!
The British-born, Berlin-based producer has spent the last few years between studio sessions and production work with artists like Massive Attack, Connie Constance and Ocean Wisdom, and touring worldwide as part of M.I.A.'s live show.
Once the pandemic hit, kidkanevil took the time to return to working on his own music in his Berlin apartment, which saw the creation of the 'BUBBLE' project. A bright, energetic, fun and idiosyncratic body of work, based on an imaginary RPG and inspired by playing copious amounts of Nintendo Switch and obsessing over his favourite cult anime / manga artists during lockdown.
kidkanevil enlisted the assistance of an array of global friends and creatives for this album. These include upcoming Tokyo-based producer Sakura Tsuruta, J-rap sensation Nakamura Minami, dream pop queen Cuushe, Brainfeeder digital wizard Iglooghost, jazz drummers Myele Manzanza & Guy Wood, Berlin harpist Arden, Cinematic Orchestra pianist Nick Ramm, and a few longtime collaborators - namely vocaloid maestro Phasma, songwriter Chris James (Stateless, DJ Shadow) and kidsuke partner in crime & Japanese electronica pioneer Daisuke Tanabe.
kidkanevil's previous albums were released via labels such as Worldwide Award-winners First Word Records, London-based Par Excellence and Berlin's Project Mooncircle (with his last release 'My Little Ghost' back in 2014) whilst his work has previously been supported by Bonobo, DJ Shadow and Daedelus. A veteran of the beat scene, kidkanevil is a Red Bull Music Academy alumni and has played solo shows internationally via Sonar, Boiler Room, Fabric and Low End Theory.
The lead singles 'Kyomu' and 'Coin Game' feature some very special visuals from renowned anime studio sankaku ('Attack on Titan', 'Star Wars: Visions', Flying Lotus) and a first time collaboration between Tokyo visionary director TAKCOM ('Flowers and Rain' feature film, Björk, Nosaj Thing) and UK cult animation rebel RuffMercy (Thom Yorke, Run The Jewelz, Danny Brown) respectively.
Expanding upon the concept of his new work, kidkanevil says "what with the whole global pandemic thing, I found myself playing a LOT of video games. I revisited the 16bit classics of my childhood, delved into the bizarre depths of the indie game scene and repeatedly saved Hyrule from dark forces across generations of consoles. I couldn't explore the real world outside, but from inside my Berlin apartment I could still travel far and wide through a never ending pixelated universe. I began to find genuine inspiration amongst the coding, and an album took shape. Heavily inspired by the manic unhinged anime of Masaaki Yuasa and the hallucinogenic visions of comic book icon Moebius, I imagined a psychedelic RPG based around a mysterious girl in a kitsune mask who could travel through worlds via a swirling dark bubble, and the various landscapes, scenarios and characters she experiences along the way. The album title is both drawn from this inter-dimensional globular liquid, my personal creative space and the more down to earth isolated reality of lockdown life. The structure and track listing teases our protagonists colourful narrative - awakening slowly in strange lands, navigating various characters, searching out elusive shrines, playful side quests, lost truths and concluding with epic realisations. Grand concepts aside, I hope the album can bring some small joy and optimism in these uncertain times. As anime god Hayao Miyazaki once said "I would like to make a film to tell children it's good to be alive"
credits
released June 24, 2022
All tracks written, produced and mixed by G. Roberts
Vocals on ‘Soda’ mixed by Lavar Bullard
Mastered by Matt Colton
Nanobots co-written with S. Tsuruta
Kyomu co-written with S. Kojima and C. James
Hungry Ghosts co-written with C. James
Kidsuke Side Quest co-written with D. Tanabe
Coin Game co-written with M. Nakamura
Soda co-written with M. Hitotsuyanagi, C. James and S. Malliagh
Wasureteku co-written with S. Kojima and C. James
Additional drums by Myele Manzanza and Guy Wood
Harp by Arden
Vocaloid on Kyomu and Wasureteku (End Credits) by S. Kojima
Bass Clarinet / Synthesiser solo on Mikinelle Galaxy by Hannah Rachael Hever
Baby sounds on Mikinelle Galaxy by Tao
Piano on Soda by Nick Ramm
Additional beat programming on 'Soda' by Iglooghost
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"For the fifteenth instalment of this compilation series I’ve picked one track from each of the year’s releases (including selections from our sister label Excursions) with a couple of exclusives added, rounding it out to 17 tracks of soul, hip hop, beats, jazz and bruk. "
Name a price for a finest selection ! K.Rise