Mark Richardson

Kid Koala doing his “Moon River” routine for the BBC a few years ago. I love this. In part because it is so anachronistic. He has to do a tremendous amount of work to achieve the subtlest effects. In the digital age this amount of exertion to change the quality of sound is ridiculous. But there’s still something gratifying about seeing a master of a craft create something by hand. Like watching a glass blower or something. Famously, he Koala never uses headphone for cueing. Which means he has to know exactly where the drop the needle, which is hard. He has little pieces of tape on the vinyl to help him keep track of where the music is. In this case, he has two copies of the Breakfast at Tiffany’s soundtrack and he has to keep them in perfect sync so that he can create effects on one and overlap those effects with the other and then crossfade and it all lines up correctly. This requires great concentration. And all of his focus and skill is directed at extending this piece of music and putting some processing on it to make it sound a little psychedelic. Watch him create an “organ solo” by knowing exactly where to drop the needle for each note. Of all the turntabalist guys who got big in the late 90s, he was always the most musical, someone whose technique could slip into the background. It’s soundmaking that doesn’t forget the body.

Posted at 12:37am and tagged with: kid koala, video, writing,.