Kid606 - Die Soundboy Die EP

Kid606 - Loose Noose


I first discovered Kid606 in '03 when I was DJing at WMWM and Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You came out. Some of the guys I knew at the station were like, "Sweet! A new Kid606 record!" And I was like, "Oh. Cool." It didn't take me long to get into him, though. Kill Sound is a great record and a fine introductory to The Kid as it was catchy and dancey enough to hook me and glitchy and noisy enough to ease me into his back catalogue. And that's where I really caught onto Kid606, with albums like Down With The Scene that open with 7 seconds of ear shredding noise (titled "Chart Topping Radio Hit") before kicking it into some awesome breakbeat.

Sadly, I picked what I think of as a bad time to discover Kid606. Every album since then has been less and less noise. I mean, Resilience was basically an ambient record (albeit a really good one). I haven't heard either Done With The Scene or Pretty Girls Make Raves (oh the puns!) but I'm pretty sure they're more geared for booty shaking judging by the names alone. I really liked when he would make stuff that had really random beats that you could dance to for about 9 seconds before he would change it up and get rid of any semblance of a beat, only to flip back 4 seconds later with a completely different tempo. He was the fucking best at that.

This new teaser EP, Die Soundboy Die, is supposed to be a taste of the full album to come in early '09. And if it's any indicator, The Kid is still going strong with the heavy beats. Now, I'm not too polished up on my various electronic music sub-genres (house, dubsteb, electronica, etc) but I do know "I like this" electronic and "I don't like this" electronic. This still falls firmly into the former but for me, each consecutive record Kid puts out, it gets closer and closer into "don't like" territory.

Yes, Die Soundboy Die is a Kid606 album and it sounds like it. But he's starting to sound a bit more generic as time goes on. This is darker, bassier, and maybe a little more dubstep (am I way off base?) than his previous releases and I guess I just haven't adjusted to Kid's new style. I'm always curious to hear the next Kid606 record, and Soundboy hasn't stopped that, but keep it up, Kid, and I just might not care anymore.

P.S. I really dig the song "Loose Noose" from this EP. I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression about how I feel towards Die Soundboy Die. Some of the tracks have a vague skweee feel to them, and that's fine by me. So, yeah. I like it, and not just because it's Kid606. It's good music but maybe I just wish someone else was making it.