"If you listen to this album in its entirety it will make you cooler than those who don't." --Kid606, from the liner notes
Where Mr. Oizo abandoned raunchy basslines and choice beats to become an ’80s pastiche caricature of his former self, Miguel Depedro (also known as Kid606, Kid666, Kid60mothafuckin6, and Tigerboy) has managed to retain his early-’90s hip-hop influences without coming off like a reactionary hipster humper. Shout at the Döner is a return to the bent pop-techno sound he helped to pioneer. Yep, this plucky Venezuelan laptop guru has been slicing and dicing old school hits since before Gregg "Girl Talk" Gillis bought his first Technotronic record. It has been a tragic oversight by the hype machine that someone as unoriginal and annoying as Girl Talk has become a scene unto himself, while Kid606 sputters along paycheck to paycheck. Sure, Miguel's dedicated following eyeballs each remarkable release as a lion spots the zebra, satiating its immediate needs, but it never ventures outside of its ecosystem expect in a cage. The beast is angry!
Unlike Gillis, Depedro is not a one-trick pony. Variety is the spice of his musical life. He has gracefully drifted between the extremes of 2003's schizophrenic glitch/jungle masterpiece Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You and his early ambient works, 2005's downtempo Resilience, and touching all shades of IDM along the way. Granted, Pretty Girls Makes Raves was a little undercooked, but his latest, Shout at the Döner, lights up the dim possibilities that the former pointed to. Yet it is highly likely that it will not do much to change the state of things. The scum also rises, as Hunter Thompson said, and the Girl Talk scum has left its stain on the bathtub.
Shout at the Döner is a pure old-school electronic journey the likes of which any aging ravers should truly appreciate. Your average Urban Outfitters bandwagoneer will be left without the history and experience to flood chat-boards and Twitter with enough simple references to give the record its proper due. This is music unpretentiously based around the beat, loosed from any pressure produced by the cool bean scene by using Depedro's obvious samples in an obscure, naturally developmental fashion.
Standing around and introspectively ‘appreciating’ is not tolerated. "Samhain California" succeeds in all the ways Oizo's last two albums failed: bringing the right kind of bounce to corny ’80s synths and a straight-up 4/4 beat. The lead single "Mr. Wobble's Nightmare" even sees 606 returning to familiar samples from Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's classic "It Takes Two," a track with which Oizo saw fit to attempt an ill-advised cover on Lambs Anger earlier in the year. Instead of using the song to placate fickle hipster fantasies of acceptable, unchallenging cheese and nostalgia for an era that only someone who didn't experience it firsthand would think was any good, Depedro uses it as color in a creepy retelling of a rave Donner party tragedy narrated by Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu. The worth of the track is not dependent on the sample being recognized.
Closing the album on a perfect note, "Good Times" delivers what it promises, with a bobbing beat lunging over a rickety reggae guitar and subtle acid synths. About midway through, the track moves to off-kilter pads and a grating circus plink, which shifts the mood from jolly to creepy. Really, that's what the album is all about. It is a sublime mix of joyful absurdity and the darkness that tears at the edges, an apparent contradiction in terms that more accurately opens the eyes to the whole picture of reality hidden by the glaze of reminiscence and drugs.
The rave scene was originally built on the idea of PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect). Many an idealistic youth committed to loving the bright side of the human soul and convinced themselves they had no dark side. But when you do that, your dark side can sneak up and rape you in the face. In a matter of years, people sobered up to face their disillusionment, Madchester crumbled, the scene scattered, and here we are almost 20 years later in a continually fracturing musical spiral jutting out simultaneously in all directions. The Pagans knew that you could not ignore or deny the dark side if you wanted to truly "know thyself." It is a lesson we're still learning.
The often overlooked fact is that the darkness can be useful. It can teach us things and balance the scales, and, thus, so can Shout at the Döner. It is the right kind of unsettling to get your feet and heart pounding with the full power of your soul in total awareness of the moment. Embrace the darkness and appreciate the light.
1. Intro
2. Be Monophobic With Me
3. Mr. Wobble's Nightmare feat. Jamie Stewart
4. Samhain California
5. Hello Serotonin, My Old Friend
6. The Church Of 606 Is Now Open For Business
7. Getranke Nasty
8. Dancehall Of The Dead
9. America's Next Top Modwheel
10. You All Break My Heart
11. Baltimorrow's Parties
12. Celebrate Yourself
13. Monsters
14. Malcontinental
15. Great Lakes
16. Underwear Everywhere
17. Good Times
More about: Kid606
