A lot of food

Some folks seem to use the “random item” function on Discogs to choose a record to listen to. No matter what comes up, the first one will hit the decks. A while ago, I thought this might just be a cool way to select an album to write about. I hit the button. Naaah… wouldn’t know what to write. Hit it again. Oof. Don’t even remember that one. Another round. God, no, I won’t tell anyone I own this… I gave up.

This morning, I tried again. Click. Oh. Look at that. “Kaleidoscope”. That’s a good one. Well, not one, really, but… hm, just how many? Just “Kaleidoscope”? Or should I include “A Dub Plate Of Food Volume 2” with versions of “Kaleidoscope” tracks? And there’s the companion edition too, the one Ninja Tune released in 2021.

Let’s do all of them. They all belong together. Five in one for me. Three times “Kaleidoscope” (Vinyl original, vinyl “Companion” edition and promo CD) and “A Dub Plate Of Food Volume 2″ twice (10” vinyl and CD). Excessive? Maybe. But it demonstrates how much I appreciated the work of Strictly Kev and PC in those years.

It’s a lot to listen to. Some of the tracks I know extremely well, having played them in bars for years, especially “The Crow” in its original version. But it’s the lesser known tracks, and especially the “Companion” album that have me listening, thinking, wondering. The hype sticker identifies those additional two LPs as “unreleased music & alternate takes made in 1997-2000”. And it contains “the ultimate version of ‘Quadraplex'”. Oh. Got that one too. Original release on clear vinyl.

The “Companion” album will mainly be entertaining for fans of the project. If you want to listen in on how the DJ Food project worked and progressed at that time, it adds a lot of cues and depth. “Kaleidoscope” showed that Kev and PC had much more to offer than what the “Jazz Brakes” series was cut out to be. It seems that while the Coldcut bosses were still on board, the purpose of the project was rather narrow, and that when Black and More diverted their attention to more pressing projects and topics, Kev and PC’s full potential could finally start to unfold. Like turning binoculars into kaleidoscopes. Lots of colors, lots of possibilities.

The “Companion” adds even more shapes and colors to the “Kaleidoscope”, and it offers plenty of hints towards future projects. “Hip Operation” with its clips from film music and vocal snippets mashed together with Hip Hop beats sounds like it was created to be used for their contributions to the “Solid Steel” mix series. Just like “Stealth”, a tune that screams for scenes in dark alleys, shady people eyeing you full of suspicion – until it starts to slowly disintegrate. There is stuff that sounds like it spilled over from what Patrick Carpenter was working on as a member of The Cinematic Orchestra, like “See Saw”, “Boohoo” or “Skylark”.

Some tracks feel like studies, experiments, sketches, not surprisingly. Two of them work with elements that form the core of “The Crow”, a mostly ambient “Slow” version, and “The Rook + Type 3” which more or less rearranges the parts of the original published version. I like the title, a rook being a kind of crow and all.

And, not to forget, “Quadraplex”. It is subtitled “A Trip To The Galactic Centre”, an extension that wasn’t part of the original title or concept. A thirteen minute trip that goes far beyond the four movement EP – epic explorations like this have become sadly rare. Without question the highlight of the “Companion” album.

I didn’t plan it, but I listened to this second album first. When I switched to the original “Kaleidoscope”, the instant burst of creativity, liveliness and class was almost a shock. Yes, this is an album, and the “Companion” is a collection. Obviously, PC and Kev must have decided to primarily go ahead with the ideas that were connected to Jazz, to cinematic storytelling, and to a wacky sort of humor.

My all time most played tune is “The Crow” – simply because it was a great moody track for the quieter moments of a long DJ set in a good bar. It may not be the most striking piece on the album, but it is one of the best examples of how much better Kev and PC really were as producers, even compared to the best “Jazz Brakes” moments. A “Dub” version of it is part of the “Dub Plate Of Food Vol. 2” collection – even more a listening piece than the original.

It was a great and probably necessary move to add vocals, like bringing in Jazz poet Ken Nordine to read one of his poems, “The Ageing Young Rebel” and creating a real jewel of a track around it. Or grabbing a spoken-word piece by Lightnin’ Rod a.k.a. Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin a.k.a. The Godfather of Rap, using turntables to cut the story up and recreate it like a super cool 21st century rap track. They used a few verses from “The Break Was So Loud, It Hushed The Crowd”, a piece from “Hustlers Convention” about a high stakes battle at the billiard table, and paired it with a sluggish and stuttering beat that is funky as hell. The only other guy that could do similar stuff was label mate Kid Koala. Mad and great.

It pays off big time that the project had mainly supplied beat food for DJs. Some of the rhythmic excellence displayed here is easily on par with what DJ Shadow delivered at the time. You could slip “Full Bleed” right between any two tracks from “Endtroducing” and only the fans of either project would look up and wonder how that happened.

While the “Jazz Brakes” series was way more about the breaks and the food, “Kaleidoscope” takes the Jazz thing serious. It’s everywhere, in various shapes and forms. From the tricky broken beats and organ stabs of “Cookin'” to the hectic pace of “The Riff” which heavily relies on a loop taken from Quincy Jones’ “Rack Em Up”, a track off his first soundtrack ever, “The Pawnbroker”.

The two “Sleep Dyads”, “Nocturne” and “Nevermore”, deepen the impression of soundtrack material, bordering on audio plays. Again, the beats reach Shadow level on “Nevermore”, playing with speeds and cuts in the most impressive fashion. Somewhere during the seventh minute you could seamlessly change over to their first “Solid Steel” session.

The cinematic journey deepens with every track, culminating in the beautiful strings of “The Sky At Night”, sounding like a dream within a dream. It’s an interesting experience, listening to this 25 years after it was released, as it triggers associations with soundtracks created much later, like it could have been plucked from a Hans Zimmer soundtrack of a dream sequence in a Sci-Fi flick. And you gotta love “Minitoka”, an extended, light-footed weekend stroll, or an impressionist’s interpretation of it.

“Kaleidoscope” dramatically showed what Foakes and Carpenter (Kev and PC) were capable of together, and how much that exceeded the confines of the original DJ Food concept. As it seems, its brilliance and success also led to the break up of this partnership. Patrick Carpenter’s talents were in heavy demand at The Cinematic Orchestra, eventually forcing him to leave the DJ Food project to Kevin Foakes. Still. “Kaleidoscope” is a highlight of the Ninja Tune catalog, and always will be.

Releases for review:
DJ FOOD – KALEIDOSCOPE – NINJA TUNE – ZEN 47
DJ FOOD – KALEIDOSCOPE + COMPANION – AHEAD OF OUR TIME – AHED030
DJ FOOD – A DUB PLATE OF FOOD VOLUME 2 – ZEN 1090

Get the music on Bandcamp: Click
Get the vinyl on Discogs: Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope + Companion Dub Plate of Food 2