DJ KOZE

AMYGDALA

Pampa Records

17/20

DJ Koze’s first album in eight years is called Amygdala. The amygdalae, for those wondering, are the parts of the brain responsible for processing memory and emotional reactions. If certain musicians pick their titles like some music reviewers confect their similies — i.e., without much thought, or ‘a point’ — Koze isn’t among them. The title fits. Koze, real name Stefan Kozalla, produces music somewhere on the deep house-weird house continuum, with this album more melancholic and nostalgic-sounding than earlier releases. It’s a meticulously designed, occasionally beautiful, and highly idiosyncratic album.

Opener Track ID Anyone?, aside from having a smirk-inducing name, begins unusually for a dance music album opener. A couple of drugged-sounding voices talk about “leaving the body”, ‘mystic’ east Asian percussion filters in, then the central reversed-melodic loop comes in, and then we’re on more familiar territory: 4/4 rhythm, harmonised vocals (courtesy of Caribou), warm bass. Koze does similar things throughout Amygdalae — take a genre template, decorate it with all manner of ‘weird’ or ‘oddball’ vocal snippets, clicks and bleeps, then polish to a sheen.

Take Marilyn Whirlwind, for instance. It’s the most energetic song on the album, with pitch-sliding fuzz bass, a guitar refrain, violin hits, and simple but propulsive percussion. All these elements are quite ‘normal house’ on their own, but together, and when filtered through a Koze lens, they make Oizo-style house music that’s less grating and more danceable than the Frenchman’s posed eccentricitunes.

Das Wort similarly plays with genre conventions. Most parts of this song belong to hip hop: broken beat, string-heavy sample, soulful vocals. But these vocals are split. The first half has a Cabaret-style German vocal, the second an American soul sample. And then there’s layer-on-layer of distorted and phased whistles — not to mention a full-on 1950s sci-fi whirl towards the end.

Other highlights include the trumpet-led and jerky Magical Boy feat. Matthew Dear, the guitar sampling Don’t Lose My Mind, and the laser-violin, almost-two-step of Ich Scrieb’ Dir Ein Buch 2013. But maybe this is an album of highlights. Koze has produced an electronic music album of collaged pop melodies, themselves made up of original/different/weird (choose your adjective) sounds stitched onto more familiar structures. So if this album doesn’t elicit some emotion, some memories, then get your amygdalae checked.

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Words: Robert Bates