Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You

Album review

Kid606's Miguel Depedro adds stylistic guises with the same nonchalance that most people don extra sweaters, an operating procedure that leaves him open to spreading thin his impressive production talents and drying up his font of ideas. After he delivered successive excellent records of spartan experimental techno (P.S. I Love You) and no-holds-barred dance mash-ups (The Action Packed Mentallist Brings You the Fucking Jams), listeners could be forgiven for simply throwing their hands up and surrendering to Depedro's wishes. That's actually the wisest advice, for Kill Sound Before Kills You is an easy winner, one of the most energized dance records of the year. This is a record that track markers simply can't contain, a record that bulges outward in several dimensions, a record that's just as imaginative and active as similarly great nü-hardcore sets from DJ /rupture and Todd Osborne's Soundmurderer, but more organized and efficient as well. Depedro spends the first four tracks on a frenzied trip through red-line dance music, beginning with the ravey acid house of the single "The Illness," detouring into dancehall chaos with "Who Wah Kill Sound?," and peaking early on with the pummeling hardcore techno of "Ecstasy Motherfucker." Though the carnage isn't over by any means, Depedro steps back slightly with a builder ("Total Recovery Is Possible") before descending into the maelstrom again on the flip side -- led by Wayne Lonesome's feature on "Buckle Up." Ending with "Parenthood," a track of warped electronic bliss, Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You is his best record yet and a work that makes it clear Kid606 has no boundaries to contain his creativity.

© John Bush /TiVo