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Music

Kid Koala Rock

KID KOALA PRESENTS THE SLEW at Mod Club (722 College), Saturday (October 3), 8:15 pm. $18.50. 416-870-8000.


While the suggestion makes him laugh, with his latest project, the Slew, Kid Koala may just be pioneering the return of rock-rap.

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“We wanted to do an album that would appeal equally to fans of Black Sabbath and Public Enemy,” the Montreal-based DJ says of his four-years-in-the-making album with his friend, producer Dynomite D. “Something that our skater friends would like.”

And while the album is 100 per cent Fred Durst-free, Koala and Dynomite have recruited some real, live rock stars for the live show: ex-members of Aussie band Wolfmother Chris Ross and Myles Heskett.

The bassist and drummer have actually been on board for the Slew almost since day one. Ross and Heskett met Kid Koala years ago, on Wolfmother’s first North American tour.

“They came to the studio and asked what I was working on,” the DJ explains over the phone from the road, somewhere between Vancouver and Seattle.

“I said we were working on this rock record and I played them early versions of the Slew. They really got into it, and every time I’d see them they’d ask, ‘What’s up with that Slew record?’?”

When Kid Koala’s latest tour took him to Sydney in February, he was able to tell them it was finished. Then he asked if they’d join him for the live show, which he says has been going amazingly well.

He’s equally excited at how the album turned out, too.

“We recorded most of it in a garage, where we plugged the turntable into an amp and turned everything up,” he explains. “It was also all hand-cut, so all the parts were cut in on turntables, like a distorted Hammond organ for harmonics.”

Ever the innovator, Kid Koala made spring-loaded, skip-proof turntables and built special stands for them so they could withstand the blast of rock ‘n’ roll power during the live show.

But, he maintains, the Slew is nothing close to rock-rap.

If anything, it’s “grungelism” – that’s the word he coined to describe it.

“If you listen to it, it’s actually quite a pure turntablism record, but ‘turntablism’ is an interesting term for describing a style of music without saying what it sounds like. Like grunge, really.”

music@nowtoronto.com

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