DJ Koze - Knock Knock (LP + "7")

Like all DJ Koze records, knock knock exists outside of trend and influence. In fact, it's a step further beyond: absolutely every single thing here, from grooves to voices to handclaps, is otherworldly and unique. Which is not to say it is utterly alien abstraction, mind. There is still disco, there is still soul, there is still techno, there is still hip hop, there is still psychedelia – there are even wafts of easy listening, lost crackly thriftstore record memories and... sort of... indie rock – but though it may sound familiar, it never does what your brain thinks it's going to do.

Likewise with the voices. More than ever before on Koze's records, there are fascinating, individualist – and well-known – voices through out knock knock but again, each of them is rendered strange, drawn into a different reality. Bon Iver's ghostly hymnals on “Bonfire” are very recognisably Bon Iver, but the way Kosi samples them and they twist and merge with synthetic sounds until choir and computer are writhing around one another in bliss are something else. The ever-unique Róisín Murphy, on two stunning tracks, becomes a cyborg funk diva. Speech from Arrested Development delivers luscious and lazy R&B-funk on “Colors of Autumn”, but Koze's warping bass, dubwise echo and alien nature sounds take it to an alternate dimension tropical landscape. Kurt Wagner of Lambchop is a vocoder bohemian, Sophia Kennedy is a sci-fi Weimar cabaret star, José Gonzalez a holographic projection from an old film of South Sea Islands... on it goes, nothing is real, everyone is an inhabitant of Koze-world.