(!K7/Inertia)

This latest project from the former ‘DJ’ Kaos represents a stylistic left turn of sorts for the former Terranova member (and creator of 2002’s ‘Ghost Cauldron’ outing), and shifts right away from the sample-based / hiphop constructions he’s become well-known for, instead exploring a more ‘band-oriented’ incarnation that veers more towards NYC punkfunk, disco, gogo and Italo house influences. With one of his key priorities being to create an album that veered completely away from his DJ / sampling roots, Kaos was also keen to focus upon creating what he terms a ‘proper Berlin album’, with an array of talent hailing from his home city all contributing to tracks on ‘Hello Stranger’ including Erlend Oye, Captain Comatose’s Khan & Snax and Electrocute, alongside NYC guest musicians Matty Safer (bassist / vocalist for The Rapture) and The Boggs’ Jason Friedman. When creating the various tracks for this album, Kaos met individually with his collaborators in his studio to ‘jam’ with them on ideas with his rhythmic elements running in the background, playing around with both lyrical and melodic ideas before he then digitally arranged the various final versions on his PC workstudio.

Opening track ‘Lessons In Love’ starts proceedings on a gliding chilled house note, with Erlend Oye’s wistful vocals tracing their way over a soft-focus backdrop of melodic pads, clicking 808 rhythms and burbling electro basslines, before ‘Feel Like I Feel (Sing Along)’ shifts things straight towards propulsive disco-fuelled punkfunk, The Rapture’s Matty Safer laying down a thick bouncing bassline around shimmering hi-hats, echoing KAOSS pad delays and New Wave-infused synths, Snax’s ghostly falsetto adding a vaguely Sylvester-meets-LCD Soundsystem vibe to proceedings. ‘Now And Forever’ continues this trajectory, with some fluid cowbells and scratchy DFA-esque guitar clearly hinting that Kaos has been paying attention to recent developments in NYC making its way over a syn-drum peppered backdrop of analogue synths and live snares, Khan’s dirty-rock chorus refrain of “I want you in my bed again” adding just the right mix of sleaze to the punky discoid rhythms, while ‘My Reputation’ features Daniel Wang trading punky verses with Nicole from Electrocute over a backing of live bass, programmed rhythms and bright synths that sits somewhere between The Rapture and colourful Italo house, vibraphones rolling around the crisp snares.

‘Boogie Boy’ offers a refreshing step away from the predominantly punkfunk stylistic reference points on this album as well as one of the biggest standout moments here, with Snax’s sleazy vocals riding over a vast electro-house backdrop of buzzing synths, with a shouted call-and-response group vocal that’s pure Prince and the Revolution delaying its way out over the thick analogue electronics, before ‘Juices (Raw and Dirty)’ features Namosh’s smooth soul vocals sliding over a backdrop of thick slapped live bass and clicking electro handclaps, Snax growled interjections of “the juice’ once again calling to mind the moments when the Purple one played some of his classic character alter-egos such as Spooky Electric off against each other. ‘Bang The Box’ meanwhile ventures out into gliding Mr. Fingers-esque synth melodies and shimmering house beats, lush synth pads adding a Detroit-tinged atmosphere as a deep male vocal sample intoning ‘bang’ echoes over the electro-fuelled rhythms, before ‘Bunny Brown’ takes this album to a contemplative and chilled-out close, with slow drums tracing their way beneath dubbed-out layers of brooding Hammond organ and ghostly vocal drones.

‘Hello Stranger’ represents a strong move in terms of Kaos embracing a fluid live band-oriented format that eschews the sample / hiphop-based outings he explored as Terranova and Ghost Cauldron in favour of the input of a suite of collaborators, with mostly inspired results. While there’s no doubting the quality of the guest performances and production here, I felt that in some ways the heavy focus on NYC punkfunk styles on ‘Hello Stranger’ slightly diluted the overall potency of this album in the sense that while all the tracks in question were certainly serviceable tunes, the glaring comparisons to the likes of The Rapture, LCD and Out Hud et al rendered the listening experience at points almost a game of ‘spot the reference point.’ There’s also perhaps a slight sense that many of the tracks here could have been slightly pared down, rather than wandering over their full eight minutes at times. These quibbles aside, ‘Hello Stranger’ certainly has plenty of good tunes that stick and is considerably more competent than many other outings of its type. I personally wouldn’t file it as a Berlin album though, but that’s just me.

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