Keeping it weird

Some of the things I like about Kid Koala. And about “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome”. Plus an anecdote or two.

1
“Like Irregular Chickens”. There is an endless amount of stuff to love on this album, and tons of reasons to smile, giggle, even laugh out loud. Most of it is nerd stuff, not everyone will get it, not everyone will find it all funny. Especially “Like Irregular Chickens”. A total turntablism absurdity. Scratching records to make it sound like a bunch of chickens in the barnyard, in rhythm, garnishing a slow drum beat, for close to two minutes. Why on earth would anyone do that? And how can anyone possibly think that this might even be entertaining?

But there I was, when I first listened to it, slowly shaking my head in disbelief with a smile that had a touch of wtf. And then there is this… what do you call it, a break? The beat suspended, the chicken-scratching getting reluctant, and then stopping altogether, a super effective clucking cliffhanger, I waited, keeping my breath, and then suddenly the most irregular of chickens can’t hold back anymore and bursts out, and I swear I sat there laughing out loud.

A few years later I was sitting together with a good friend, going through all kinds of music, and somehow we ended up listening to this track, and the same thing happened again, Andreas cracking up on my sofa, and I am sure we sounded like two irregular chickens ourselves.

2
“Like Regular Chickens”. Yes, there are regular chickens too. Amon Tobin came up with them. It’s one of the best tracks on 1998’s “Permutation”. Great album. No idea what the idea was behind the title, but being label buddies and camaraderie among artists being a vital part of the Ninja Tune culture it’s no surprise that the title of Tobin’s track popped up in Kid Koala’s mind when he worked on his own chickens. Very irregular ones, and funny too.

3
Eric San. The man. Kid Koala. I just looked it up, it was in 2003 when I met him for an interview. Heidelberg, Karlstorbahnhof, and I am sure it was two or three hours before he went on stage. Almost all of the musicians I ever interviewed were friendly people, I can’t remember a single interview that would not have been a joyful and enriching experience. Eric San was quite special though. Genuinely appreciative of the interest in his work, very happy to answer any question I might have, positive, full of life and friendliness, the quirkiness of his music always bubbling like an undercurrent of his character. Modest dude, smiling like a man that is happy with the way his life is going, like a man that is deeply appreciative of the simple fact that he can lead the life of an artist that is able to do the things he loves to do.

Whenever he uploads a little video on Instagram, announcing an event – and there are plenty of different projects he’s involved in, this guy’s day must have at least 36 hours – he still comes across exactly the same way. I wonder if he can ever get angry.

4
“Keep it weird. They’ll get it later.” That’s what it says on Kid Koala’s Bandcamp. A motto of sorts. Feels like a true reflection of his Chinese-Canadian roots, a touch of Zen and a dose of cool Canadian composure.

I’m sure that one or the other DJ or turntablist will have looked at what he was doing, thinking that this guy is decidedly weird, and that not all of them will have understood his peculiar sense of humor that famously includes throwing in snippets of comedy that made fun of DJing, not even being able to play instruments and all.

And yet, here he is. A modest man that doesn’t shove himself into the limelight in spite of a) being one of maybe a handful of turntablists that have been able to turn it into a prospering and long-lasting career, b) being a vital part of the Gorillaz and Deltron 3000, c) the creator of wonderful multimedia shows such as “Storyville Mosquito”, and d) a brilliant graphic artist that has turned his best-known work “Space Cadet” into a feature film that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2025.

He kept it weird, and they did get it by now.

5
“Moon River”. After I had finished the interview back in 2003, I was very happy to see him perform live. I do own a few turntables, and I have spent plenty of nights DJing. I know how difficult it is just to put two tracks on top of each other without having one of them running away after a few seconds. My biggest challenge has always been finding out which of the two it was.

I can’t even imagine what it must take to be a truly talented turntablist, let alone do it on the level of someone like Eric San. But I know enough about it to have been in total disbelief when I saw what he did on stage.

Guys like him need more than two turntables. I think in those days he worked with three of them. I understood what he did with each one of them, seeing and deciphering which of the turntable supplied what to the overall result. How to keep all three of them under control, that’s what I couldn’t really grasp.

It took me a while to notice that something was different. Must have been the second or third piece, when I realized that the man wasn’t wearing any headphones. He had his act down so well that they simply weren’t necessary. Damn. Every single piece of vinyl he used had markers of course, indicating where to put the needle, and of course he knew every single one of them by heart, you probably could have woken him up at two in the morning, put him behind the deck and have him play a faultless set.

And yes, he had his own vinyl cuts to provide him with the bits and pieces he needed for the show, and yes, that does make things a little easier as well. But that’s like lowering the skill level from a trip to Mars to a trip to the Moon. Without autopilot.

I completely lost it when he did his “Moon River” routine. Working with all turntables, varying pitch control settings and switching between 33 and 45 – which means using whatever a turntable had to offer to play at various speeds to hit specific notes. He played this song by simply lowering the needle at just the right spots at just the right speeds, note for note.

Yes, yes, that’s nerd stuff. But if you know enough about working with turntables, you know – this is as good as it gets.

6
“Carpal Tunnel Syndrome”. The album. It’s easily as groundbreaking and singular as DJ Shadow’s “Endtroducing”. As pure regarding the way it was created, for one. Where Shadow pieced it together with nothing but samples, this album doesn’t include anything from a sampler or a musical instrument, it was all done with nothing but vinyl played and scratched, all manipulated manually and pieced together on an eight-track recorder.

Supposedly, Eric San had told the Ninja Tune crew that he had done it in half a year when they asked him, and that the reality had been closer to four years. The amount of work, the meticulousness, the endless attempts at getting the turntable to do what it is supposed to do, let alone the hands that need to be so fast and precise, not just for a few seconds, but for the full length of a track, the longest ones on this album around or even beyond four minutes, the timing, the humor, the sourcing of material, the whole choreography… Shadow had called his album “Endtroducing” partly because he had sworn to himself that he’d never do it the same way again. I don’t know how Eric San felt when he was done, but he will probably have asked himself whether he’d do it the same way again, and not just once.

The funny pieced-together conversations on the two “Bar Hopper” bits, the legendary “Drunk Trumpet”, the weirdly funny “Fender Bender” – all of this is not just a class of its own, it’s a world of its own. Deeply musical, wonderfully funny and quirky, a singular phenomenon.

I’m sure Eric San is a happy man. And we should all be happy that people like him are out there, proving every day that there is no substitute for human creativity, and that music is still a form of art.

Release for review:
KID KOALA – CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME – NINJA TUNE – ZEN34XXV

Get the vinyl at the Ninja Tune store: Click (sold out at kidkoala.com)
Get it on Discogs if unavailable: Click