Kingfisherg: Maverick Mouth
Cartepostale

Close your eyes and listen: “Solo Spin” and “Y is for the Youth,” the opening cuts on Kingfisherg's (François Boulanger) second album Maverick Mouth, sound like what The Sun, Fridge's recent album, should have sounded like. Blending inspired electronic sputter with a loose but forceful drum attack, Boulanger's music dazzles with its inspired fusion of hip-hop, electronic experimentalism, and post-rock. Though his taste runs towards artists like Wu Tang Clan, Clouddead, Timbaland, and Tortoise, among others, if his music recalls any one in particular, it's Four Tet, especially when Boulanger situates his rambunctious drumming so prominently in the mix (the vibes-electronics-drums combination in “Heavy Riding” certainly strengthens the connection). At fourteen tracks, the album appears longer than it is, as a handful are bright electronic interludes that break up the drum-heavy explorations that generally dominate. Though a hip-hop lurches slowly through “Miles Away From Fear,” Maverick Mouth's generally more post-rock than hip-hop. One caveat: the loose feel isn't unwelcome but sometimes the approach results in material that's a little too loose and could bear tightening up (“Gun It Zurich”).

August 2007