Kid Koala Spins Into the Future With 'Space Cadet' Book, New Slew LP

Turntablist and illustrator Kid Koala is, as the saying goes, a study in contrasts. He likes it very loud. He likes it very quiet. And more than 15 years into his career, he has no problem coming up with wildly inventive ways to do both -- no matter how long it takes.

Coming soon is a typically ambitious book and music project called 'Space Cadet,' which the Ninja Tune stalwart born Eric San tells Spinner is "the quietest thing I've ever done" and concerns fatherhood and space travel.

"I've been working on it since 2004. The music is very lullaby-like, mostly recorded on acoustic keyboards with turntable woodwinds and turntable strings. It's a complete anti-dance floor, anti-rock out kind of thing."

Noise complaints are unlikely. "I'll do the show on headphones," he continues. "Everyone will have a set of headphones, and we're bringing in these inflatable pods that seat about 35 people per pod so everyone will have their own spaceship with all their friends. We're gonna do this 'quiet time' concert for them."

He's set a deadline of early next year, around February. He'll roll it out with tours of art galleries and museums -- certainly not a typical touring circuit, but a nice racket to be in.

Speaking of good rackets to be in, Koala is still riding high with the Slew, especially after the project was named to the Polaris Long List. "The Slew's the loudest project I've ever done," Koala says. "We wanted to make a record that our skater friends would enjoy. It's the first record I've ever been a part of that doesn't make people fall off their boards."



Created entirely by scratching records in order to sound like a rock band, the live show is an intense experience featuring six turntables and the rhythm section from Wolfmother (Chris Ross & Myles Haskett) recreating the album live.

Naturally, album number two has to rock even harder. "We've got Jon Spencer [Blues Explosion, Heavy Trash] and Mike Patton [Faith No More, Fantomas, Mr. Bungle] singing on a couple of songs. We're still going through the process of recording a bunch of stuff. I've got a record cutter now. We bring Chris and Myles in, record them for a week. I find the parts that can work, then cut them to a record. I have to practice cutting those together on turntables, then we have to go back and record that for the bed tracks. It's a longer process than your regular style of recording session."

And process becomes reality when?

"I might be a little ambitious and say next fall, if not the following spring. The book launch is the following fall, because we're definitely playing more galleries and museums quite far in advance. After that, I might get tired of doing quiet shows and I'll be ready to get sweaty again."

Koala, laughing, swears he's trying to be more or less efficient. "That first [Slew] record took four and a half years to do -- we're going to try to cut that at least in half this time!"