Miguel "Kid 606" Trost-Depedro
(born in Venezuela but raised in San Diego and relocated
to San Francisco in the 1990s) is an enfant prodige of electronica. He was
still a teenager when he began composing harsh "digital hardcore" music
that dismembered ambient, techno, jungle, hip hop.
Inspiration came from Atari Teenage Riot
Autechre,
Pan Sonic
and Matmos.
The former were the main influence on
Don't Sweat The Technics (Vinyl Communications, 1998), a punk album
in disguise. SilverEgg, Don't Sweat The Technics,
GhettoBlaster, Matmos Are The A-team Of Electronica are
noise blitzkriegs that take no prisoners.
Disc (Vinyl Communications, 1999) is a collaboration with
Matmos and Jay Lesser.
The EP Dubplatestyle (Vinyl Communications, 1999) contains
remixes by friends.
A mature and almost decadent sensibility for ambience, droning and melody
permeates the subsequent EPs:
GQ On The Eq (Vinyl Communications, 1999), whose title-track
bends a melody the way a blacksmith welds metals (and will remain his
postmodernist masterpiece),
The Soccer Girl (Vinyl Communications, 2000), and spills over into his second
album, Down With The Scene (Ipecac, 2000).
Here the 20-year old Depedro asserts itself as an original and
powerful voice, not just a passing novelty. His
edgy and convoluted collage art of white noise, sampled voices and frantic
breaks
(Luke Vibert Can Kiss My Indiepunk Whiteboy Ass is pure adrenaline,
Kidrush is pure psychosis),
his carcasses of industrial dance (Dame Nature is a symphonic poem
for extreme frequencies and distorted, pounding techno beats,
Buffalo 606 sounds like a disciple of John Cage's radio noise or
Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrete performing Giorgio Moroder's disco-music),
his pastiches of digital crackling (Ruin It Ruin Them Ruin Yourself),
his ghosts of popular music (Secrets 4 Sale uses a telephone tone,
a funky rhythm and a reggae backbeat to propel a rap and its soul choir,
Juvenile Hall Roll Call turns a rock and roll into a bacchanal
of jackhammers and motorcycles)
live in a wormhole at the border between
two universes, warped and distorted by a monstrous gravitational pull.
The technique peaks with the savage metamorphoses of My Kitten, whose
shrill, distorted, electronic effects and beats lash out in all directions,
the ideal soundtrack to the eruption of a volcano as viewed from inside
a high-voltage electric wire.
Far from being provocative for the sake of being provocative, Kid 606 shows
restraint: the brief interludes that dot the album allow for glimpses of
an explosive force that is never fully tapped.
PS You Love Me (Mille Plateaux, 2001) is a more pensive work that
runs the gamut from alien dances (Together, Whereweleftoff) to
alien soundscapes
(Twirl, Sometimes, Now I Wanna Be A Cowboy).
PS I Love You (Mille Plateaux, 2001) is, unfortunately,
a remix album of PS I You Love Me.
An Innocent Mess To Compress (Tigetbeat6, 2001) is a live album.
Continuing Kid 606's seesaw artistic path,
The Action Packed Mentallist Brings you the Fucking Jams (Violent Turd, 2002)
is the opposite of PS I You Love Me, a schizo-chaotic
collection of dance tracks for terminal post-ecstasy nervous breakdowns.
Samples are abused but often returned to their original context.
Kid 606 may indulge in white-noise techno
(Sometimes I Thank God I Can't Sing, Rebel Girl), but
can also soar with post-modernist deconstructions of pop muzak such as
Smack My Glitch Up (Kylie Minogue) and
This Is Not My Statement (Radiohead).
None of these is particularly engaging or innovative. However, at least the
11-minute drum'n'bass massacre of
MP3 Killed The CD Star (refocusing the Buggles' classic) and the
14-minute merry-go-round Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holler
(that butchers
Missy Elliott),
whose baroque baroque elegance nicely
bridge the gap between old-fashioned dance-music and glitch-music, and
stand as a sublime form of cut-up art, justify the existence of the album.
On the other hand,
the EP Why I Love Life (Tigerbeat6, 2002) contains seven brief
Eno-esque pieces.
Electronic eclecticism can lead to digital confusion, as proven on
Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You (Ipecac, 2003).
Depedro's incursions into noise, dance and ambience are channelled
into more structured songs but the whole appears as pure production mayhem
(Ecstasy Motherfucker, Who Wah Kill Sound, The Illness, Woofer Wrecker).
The defect worsens on Who Still Kill Sound? (Tigerbeat6, 2004), which
sounds like a mere parade of production techniques that only occasionally
entertains
(Yr Inside The Smallest Rave On Earth,
Live Acid Jam,
Robitussin Motherfucker,
Ass Scratch Beaver)
and never innovates.
Like its predecessor, it also suffers from magniloquent and somewhat noisy
production.
Resilience (Tigerbeat6, 2005) is a gentler work, if nothing else because
it encompasses so many different styles. Unfortunately, tracks such as
Done with the Scene and Xmas Funk are mainly meant to show off
his studio-manipulation talent... in an age in which he has fallen behind the
learning curve. Any "kid" can do what he does, and, alas, does it.
In a desperate attempt at regaining currency, Spanish Song is even poppy.
Pretty Girls Make Raves (Tigerbeat 6, 2006) sounds like a faithful
tribute to retro electronic dancefloor music.
Shout At The Doner (2009) was pure routine with rare moments reminiscent
of the old madness
(Hello Serotonin My Old Friend).
Songs About Fucking Steve Albini (Important, 2010) continued the
mellow vein of
Resilience, bordering on ambient music and on minimalism
(Periled Emu God).
That mellow vein overflowed on
Lost In The Game (Tigerbeat 6, 2012), basically a set of
melancholy electronic vignettes like Godspeed You African American Emperor.
