Customer Reviews

Graffiti Artist

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been a Kid Loco fan for several years, and have always sought out his work and never been disappointed. This album, in my opinion, is one of his best pieces of work. It consists of one track that fades and melts into different styles of music, so although there is only the single track, it feels like several different songs at times. I have a very long commute to work and was surprised that this album is actually longer than my drive!

The style of music is very Eastern-influenced, very trancey, nicely trip-hoppish. I really enjoy listening to it. It's definitely great background music for day-to-day activities.

The only drawback to the album being one-track is that I rely heavily upon my iPod for entertainment during my long commute, and this album really won't translate to the shuffle-play I usually use, since the single track is over an hour long. I enjoy the artistic concept of the album having only 1 track, but it's not practical for that sort of use. Other than that, this is an excellent example of Jean-Yves Prieur's talent at the mixing board.

a few of the tracks can go little long. great sound. love the fact that there are no lyrics.

Anyone looking for another "A Grand Love Story" will be pretty bemused after listening to this. Nor is it anything like "Kill Your Darlings" either. In fact, now that I think about it, is there even a Kid Loco sound at all?

Strange thing is, the longest piece on this CD sounds very much like some of Popol Vuh's longer excursions e.g. the title track from Bruder des Schattens etc. I'd love to know if KL has ever heard them. It's very hypnotic but its lack of development given its length may put a lot of people off.

Kid Loco crafts an ambient melding of Middle-Eastern sounds fused with smart hip-hop beats to create an entrancing soundtrack CD to Jimmy Bolton's emotionally complex film of the same name.
Lovely and inspiring, the music takes its sweet time to slowly evolve and carry the listener through a dream-like journey--and if you're patient(first reviewer, listen up)--you'll be duly rewarded.

Finally Kid Loco managed to get some more tracks out by creating a movie score. It is refereshing everytime one of the tracks plays randomly on my iPOD during day or night. The great ambient hip-hop mixed with middle-eastern melodies is perfect whether I am working on the computer during the day, or chillin' round the house at night, and after seeing the movie I even have more respect for Kid Loco's ability. This time he crafted a sort of opera. The album is also great to play straight through. The (mostly dark) moody rollercoaster reminds me of how Miles Davis crafted albums like Bitches Brew and Agharta.

Being a big Kid Loco fan, i was excited to hear he'd finally come out with a new record. his instrumental work is always vibrant and fresh and this is a whole new level for him. it's a career high for the artist who has remixed some of the biggest artists in brit rock among others. i just got home and put it on and for the next 80 minutes you are taken on a journey of great emotion with solid beats and some wonderful melodys....some quite exciting and happy and others quite sad. Move over kid koala, dj shadow, and other greats...Europe's premier DJ is BACK and he's secured his place at the top!!!

I was first introduced to the work of Kid Loco several years ago with his excellent remix collection Jesus Life For Children Under 12 Inches. After hearing and enjoying that release, I sought out some of his solo work and although it didn't blow me away, it was constructed well enough to stick out in a world cluttered with mid and downtempo electronic music.

The Graffiti Artist is his newest work in almost four years (following Kill Your Darlings, which I consider to be his least-interesting work), and it's the soundtrack to an independent film about yes, you guessed it; underground graffiti artists. I've not seen the film itself, but given the basis for the film figured without even hearing the score that it would fall in line almost perfectly with the music that Kid Loco has already created.

I've always been a big fan of soundtracks and how well they hold up as individual pieces of music outside the films that they accompany, and I probably have fifty or so soundtracks in my personal collection that hold up to repeated listening and indeed even conjure up unique imagery on their own (holding court at the top of the list are the usual suspects like Ennio Morricone, Danny Elfman, and John Williams).

Unfortunately, the soundtrack to The Graffiti Artist is so repetitive and plain that it makes me wonder why it was released in the way that it was. Eight un-named tracks run almost eighty minutes long and in most cases barely change instrumentation. The first three tracks (which run almost fifty minutes total time) mix middle eastern percussion, a bit of guitar, and some rhodes for some warm backdrops, but the melodies are all so jammy and non-descript that they could easily be edited down or trimmed.

It's only towards the latter part of the release that things actually change up and get a bit interesting. Track six busts loose with some funky rhodes organ and a hip-hop beat before dropping off into dark ambience while track seven recycles a melody from earlier in the album and pairs it with some chunky beats and synth strings for something that sounds like the theme song for a suave intercontinental spy. Even with the bursts of late creativity, though, the album sags and lags in so many ways that it will probably only appeal to those looking for something very repetitive and innocuous to put on in the background while doing something else.

(from almost cool music reviews)

This is a nice return to form for Kid Loco after the disappointing Kill Your Darlings. Being a soundtrack it's reasonable to expect a certain amount of repetition. Unfortunately, there are really only two distinguishable musical themes on the album. The first three tracks are variations on a snakey tabla beat coloured with Indian flute and sitar. It's lovely, but there is little variation over the nearly 50 minutes run time. Track 4 introduces a welcome new tune, which is revisited in the next few tracks mixed with ambient soundtrack music. This is a pleasant, relaxing chill-out record but for my money you could pick out two or three songs to represent the whole album. Kid Loco's instrumentals have always been his strongest suit. This album is a big step in the right direction, lets hope the next one has more variety.