“I always aim for a kind of timelessness and in my subjective perception timelessness means avoiding things and sounds. This is a much more difficult task than vice versa.” Like its predecessor Amygdala, Knock Knock sports a lot of vocalists, but each player is deployed at just the right moment, lending their talents to round out DJ Koze’s grand vision. The result is somewhere on the spectrum near Massive Attack’s Mezzanine or UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction; both overly ambitious albums with long lists of collaborators, but timeless. The album credits cite Bon Iver as a featured vocalist on “Bonfire,” one of the album's most sublime moments. But truthfully, Koze just sampled some of Justin Vernon’s vocals from Bon Iver, Bon Iver standout “Calgary” - not that it takes anything away from the track; if it were simply a Koze remix of “Calgary” we’d be thrilled to have it on wax either way. Róisín Murphy’s vocals lend a delicate and soulful counterweight to Koze’s breakneck sample cutups on “Illumination” (she also appears on the downtempo palate cleanser “Scratch That”). José González, Mano Le Tough, Eddie Fummler, Kurt Wagner of Lambchop and Pampa Records signee Sophia Kennedy also feature, plus (perhaps most surprisingly) Speech from Arrested Development. As always, Koze makes it abundantly clear he’s not pandering to DJs or tailoring his tracks to neatly fit into the Tetris block rigidity that often defines a techno set… he deploys broken beats, abrupt changes and beat switches with a playful wave of his wand. Although we’d love to hear what some of these tracks would do on a rig to a packed room, Knock Knock seems best suited for introspective listening sessions at home. Double vinyl pressing housed in full color gatefold jacket with bonus 7” containing two additional tracks (a deluxe indie-only box set containing a ton of bonus materials is also available). Recommended.

• double vinyl pressing
• full color gatefold sleeve
• bonus 7-inch
• release date: 05/04/18
• music label: Pampa 2018

reviewed by big dumb man 04/2018

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