Music Can Hear Us lays out DJ Koze’s panculturalist ethos clearer than any of his prior studio releases, island-hopping from wispy echoes of son Cubano (“A Dónde Vas?”) to Japanese-language doo-wop (“Umaoi”) to, uh, Damon Albarn-fronted Afrobeats? It’s simple to cringe at two white guys of their 50s cashing in on the chart-conquering sounds of younger Africa, however Koze treats the brand new crayons in his field as reverently because the outdated, sketching out a cushty area of interest someplace between King Sunny Adé’s Juju Music and the extra trendy stylings of Nigerian Alté.
Listening to the famously stoic Blur and Gorillaz frontman break into laughter throughout “Pure Love”’s verses, I used to be reminded of an anecdote from the Hit Parade classes, the place Murphy described how private voicemails she’d despatched to Kozalla popped up on later variations of the document. Who’s to say Albarn didn’t document 20 excellent takes and Koze opted for the one the place he flubbed a line? The impact is intoxicatingly candid, that of circumventing a collaborator’s on-record persona to seize one thing of their true essence.
Whereas it delights in a life spent overseas, Music Can Hear Us additionally digs deeper into Kozalla’s residence turf. “Der Fall,” sung by Pampa affiliate Sophia Kennedy, performs like a pastoral people track recorded behind the Berlin Wall. “Unter meinen Füßen fängt/Der Boden an zu schwanken…doch Ich discover daran Gefallen,” she sings: “The bottom begins to shake beneath my toes, however I prefer it.” The opposite facet of Koze’s name for unity is the rupture it’d take to get there. “Wie schön du bist” encompasses a distinguished pattern of “Bleib Doch,” from singer-songwriter Holger Biege’s 1978 album Wenn der Abend kommt. Born in East Germany, Biege fled to Hamburg with out an exit allow within the early ’80s and was quickly separated from his household. Every Koze track is like this—a mini-thesis on some forgotten footnote of music historical past—however right here his longstanding fascination with golden oldies will get private. Kozalla would have been 5 or 6 years outdated when “Bleib Doch” got here out, and “Wie schön du bist” beams us instantly into the thoughts of a child listening to his new favourite track on the radio for the primary time.
That is DJ Koze’s alchemy—the power to return any dusty piece of ephemera to mint situation. On mid-album stunner “Unbelievable,” fellow German singer and producer Ada is a lifeless ringer for
the mid-century pop vocalist Connie Francis, resplendent in a computerized corridor of mirrors. “I should be dreaming, sure dreaming/You’re so heavenly,” she sings, however Koze’s not content material to let any emotion sit idly by; pet love bares its enamel and sincerity is minimize with camp. “What About Us,” that includes the Notwist’s Markus Acher, is a kaleidoscope of digi-bells, skittering lure hi-hats, and strummed zither that immediately joins the ranks of Koze’s finest ballads. However rather than candy nothings—“Honey honey/On my nostril/In your titties,” “Das Wort heisst love”—it trades in existential dread: “Above our heads the sky’s exploding/We maintain a world that disappears.”