89 is the sum of many musical parts welded together in idiosyncratic style by New York musical maverick, producer and drummer Chad Curlow. Comparisons to Pharrell and Beck, although partly justified, also do him a disservice as his sound occupies its own unique corner of the sonic spectrum defying easy categorisation and I for one like it loads
Forget song structures you’ve known and loved Kotchy has got production attention deficit disorder and his own distinct musical plan but somehow it all makes sense. Glitch hop morphs into ambient noodlings, dubstep goes pop, demented electronica segues into love songs and r&b gets a sampledelic techno makeover as Kotchy weaves his ‘on the fly’ studio magic while softly vocalising his take on life, modern America and relationships often with his tongue in his cheek.
Big tunes include the skanking 8bit cod reggae pop perversion of ‘Check Out My Keychain”, the tender audio caresses of ‘Falling In love’ with its classical string samples, hip hop beats and gentle vocals. Look out for ‘One For The Money’ where mutated vocals, funk horn samples, scratches, 80′s synth lines, Kotchy’s voice and live drums jump into the bath together and harmoniously soap each others backs while the 6 minute stylistically schizophrenic epic ‘Shake’ perfectly encapsulates the constantly morphing eclectic nature of the album.
In between the longer tracks providing the spine of the album there are all manner of shorter wobbly beat excursions, ambient noodles, twisted soul and electro glitch pop that create a varied topography in this trip down the river of Kotchy’s imagination. But like all journeys this album has a beginning and an end and although the going isn’t smooth I recommend you stay in the boat start to finish to fully appreciate the genius in this man’s musical madness.
1. Raise Your Eyebrows
2. Falling In Love
3. Same As It Never Was
4. Check Out My Keychain
5. She Made It Easy
6. Pay Me
7. Sing What You Want
8. Three Lonely Girls
9. Shake
10. String Vinyl Bell
11. Gonna Have To Wait
12. Blood And Tongue
13. You Can Have Me Right Now
14. One For The Money
15. A Superstar
16. Track 16
Released on Civil Music
Kotchy Myspace
