Kid Kadian "Qwerty" (Salt of the Earth)
By Abel Folgar
Thursday. Aug 25, 12:16 AM
Punkish, sterile IDM for kids who want a chill time.

Born out of the split of underground IDM consortium The Reverse Side in 2001, 22 year-old Kid Kadian blends computer savvy with his upbringing in the punk rock scene and his Jamaican heritage to generate a self-described “anti-pop” offshoot of techno music. Like pugilist Kid Gavilán’s bolo punch and his namesake’s narcotic analgesic (Kadian drug is a morphine sustained action capsule manufactured in the U.S. by Alpharma), the Kid operates on a pure digital platform with a soothing “less is more” attitude.

Citing Dead Kennedys, Crass, Ninja Tune, and Wu-Tang Clan as influences, Kadian’s treatment of trip-hop, acid jazz, abrasive drum and bass, and Casio tones render aural danceable landscapes perfect for dark clubs and home enjoyment. Believing blindly in the Fruity Loops program, he stacks minimalist effects to create two-minute ethereal threads of consciousness. “Lost in the Night” is a breathy, underwater zapper. “Meta-Analysis of Consumer Technology,” ambitious titling aside, is a mid-tempo/mid-‘90s European hip-hop number. “Drug Invasion” is a scattered, false starts-laden track that regains sentient control at the climax of its arpeggios.

The title track opens shy enough with held back sounds before breaching with succeeding beat speeds and sampled baby ga-gas. While he manages to maintain shorter and simpler tracks than most of his peers, Kadian is most successful in implementing a quirky subversion in all his songs. Perhaps to greater heights live, where his show includes visuals of TV, pop culture, and homemade films a la ‘60s hippie freak-outs. A solid, unpretentious effort: 13 tracks, 30 minutes.
www.saltoftheearthrecording.com

Abel Folgar

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