Death Star Rockin’ With the Hot Shit You Moving To: Robot Koch’s “Death Star Droid”
Robot Koch. The name sounds like a concept album Lupe Fiasco would conceive were he ever dropped from Atlantic and sent down to Triple A to rap for the label of choice for late-period Mobb Deep side-projects (I refuse to call it E1-it’s not a vegetable juice blend, it’s a record label). Straight out of Berlin, the android born Robert Koch, is slated to drop his first solo full-length, Death Star Droid, following his work in “critically acclaimed band Jahcoozi and post rock/hiphop outfit The Tape vs RQM” (his hyperbole, not mine.)
Originally a hardcore drummer who incubated a love of hip-hop the proper way (via Enter the 36 Chambers), the traces of Koch’s percussionist roots loom large on Death Star, with that rugged boom-bap clap blending nicely with the wobbly dubstep textures and squealing synth lines. Think a Teutonic Nosaj Thing or Hudson Mohawke if he preferred frankfurters to haggis. Koch has already received endorsements from Gaslamp Killer, Mary Anne Hobbs, and Modeselektor. Recently, Flying Lotus asking him to drop a Brainfeeder Podcast, where Koch featured some righteous Fela Kuti and rare jazz cuts, showing off the eclecticism of his bag of tricks. Follow his advice and don’t sleep, Koch is probably the best robot since Japanese Robot Santa Claus.
Download:
MP3: Robot Koch-”Robots Don’t Sleep Mix” (Left-Click)
MP3: Robot Koch-”Brainfeeder Mix”
Stumble It!
October 30th, 2009 at 10:59 am
I understand Koch Records wants to shed it’s reputation as the graveyard for failed major label rappers and weed carriers but there has gotta be better name than E-1 to re-brand your company with.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
[…] My post about Robot Koch’s excellent Death Star Droid a few weeks ago drew deafening silence, save for Doc Zeus agreeing with me about how pitiful it was for Koch to switch their name to E1. Fair enough. Now the estimable Berlin-born android is passing out another pair of tracks, in addition to the pair of still available mixes. “Away From” isn’t really dubstep, lacking the heavy wobble and slower BPMs. It’s probably closer to the generically named “Bass” or “Wonky,” which I suspect are labels that have wisely been crafted to avoid calling it “instrumental hip-hop.” Ah, the power of re-branding. And if that’s another way to get people to listen to the clipped vocal samples, dusty drums, and nocturnal narcotic tone, then so be it. For his second trick, he enlist 19-year old LA native, Shlohmo to slows down the pace of DSD track, “Gorom Sen” to create sometime entirely new: haunting, otherwordly, and filled with unintelligible gibberish. Sort of like a David Lynch film, except with less nudity, red lampshades, and non-sequiturs. […]