It is unclear if the show has started yet. The audience wanders a U-shaped balcony full of carnival games (“Turn your face into an asteroid and win!”) and articles of interest (sculptures of plants from a fictional planet). The walls are lined with covers of old science fiction records with names like Bobby and Betty go to the Moon and etchings from Space Cadet, the graphic novel/album around which this “immersive experience” is centered. Beneath the balcony lies an auditorium, its floor lined with rows of white mats and tubular, white cushions.
Kid Koala is walking around the balcony and speaking to concert-goers about the gathered oddities. He tells me the new Deltron 3030 album (due out in June) is all done save for one chorus, and that “it murders the first one!” He emerges elsewhere on the balcony and introduces his opener, Terrance Bernard, who plays three songs in the far corner while I listen and frost a cookie at the Cookie Station.
We funnel down two stairwells into the auditorium and are each handed a pair of wireless headphones before finding our seats and space pods (cushions). Music can be heard in the hall, but Kid Koala speaks and his voice is only audible in headphones. It is a strange sensation. Koala begins his first song, close-ups of his hands projected on three screens behind him.
Koala’s technique is subtle and nonabrasive, uncommon in the world of turntablists. It would be easy to forget — were it not for the multi-angle closeups — how much energy and precision go into producing these otherworldly sounds. His sound engineer, Vid Cousins, works in tandem, and the product can now only be heard through the headphones. Removing the headphones for a moment produces, oddly, a more isolating feeling than wearing them: sitting alone in a large, quiet room.
One song is accompanied by images from Space Cadet, but the concept is soon abandoned in favor of an experience far more varied. Koala plays songs from his upcoming 12-Bit Blues album, his popular, eerie rendition of “Moon River,” and music from children’s TV show Yo Gabba Gabba! (while dressed in a Koala suit, leading the audience in a dance). He jokes around between songs and talks about the book: It’s a sad, sweet tale about a robot whose daughter leaves for space. There are no words, he tells us, so he felt like he needed to add songs so people wouldn’t feel ripped off.
Between songs, he asks for audience volunteers; some ring bells or spin long, plastic howling tubes, others engage in a thumb war projected in enormous triplicate, and we all cheer along with an animated dance battle. He thanks the audience for its support, and asks offhandedly if we’re as jaded about the typical live-music formula as he is. But as soon as another song begins, the intensity and focus of the headphones experience returns, and we are all sitting in a silent room, listening intently. It is unclear when exactly the show started, but we know we are part of it now.
Set list
01. Moving On (officially untitled collaboration w/Damon Albarn, Dan the Automator)
02. Space Cadet Theme
03. Remembrance
04. Music Box with Margot
05. Mosquito Blues
06. Song from Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!
07. Moon River
08. Speed of Light (from Space Cadet)
09. 11-Bit Blues
10. 3-Bit Blues
11. Birthday
Equipment list
Kid Koala:
- Technics 1200
- Vestax QFO
- Rane Empath Mixer
- Yamaha SU-10
- Wurlitzer
Vid Cousins:
- FX quad panner
- Persephone
- Glitchbox
