Kiwa Dreamtime Enhancer Surreal Audio

Unfortunately I don’t know too much about Kiwa – for someone like me, a CD without a press release is like a teacher having a textbook without the answers. Nevertheless I will perform my duty and talk about the music rather than what the people behind the music – Make Louhio, with or without Matti Elsinen and Kris Kylven on drums (see, I can read the inside of a CD) – like to eat for breakfast. Cricket In The Ear kicks off with a percussive, jostling jazzy vibe. The percussion really sticks out as being excellent here, with a definite live feel, and good squelch adding to the layering. Trans-Electronic has a kind of kraftwerk-on-acid vibe, with electro sauce over a frenetic psychedelic breakbeat backbone. Rally Spirit is a corker, a real liquid dancefloor moment with bags of energy and dubby soundholes that add to the hypnotising factor. Digital Hangover is a semi-messy breakbeat showoff, while the heavy handed Neutralize is pure mechanoid 4-4 bliss. Dramatic Display of Insanity is 2-step jungle through a blender, with a kind of late Eat Static sound that’s evident on a lot of the album. Kiva Runner is sort of like a heavy tribal Ayahuasca trip in the middle of downtown Tokyo – cultures blend and boundaries are malleable, and Deceptive Antiseptic is awkward bleed-chill that takes an electro philosophy and sodomises it in its parent’s living room. Divider again returns to the psychedelic dancefloor with a frantic and haywire pattern that’s great for random flinging about of arms, Nasty Drop is psychedelic disco in widescreen, and finally Lahti Skyline closes proceedings in a cinematic, advert-friendly bit of videogame backdrop breakbeat. This is nice stuff and the dancefloor moments are nice and frenzied with depth and experimentation that’s nice to see. However, some of the more freeform breakbeat moments disappear up their own basslines, which is alienating and more a musician display showcase than anything else. This album is very clever – and just maybe a bit too clever.