DJ Food: The Search Engine [Review]

When we see the artwork above, we immediately think Super Metroid, but maybe that’s just us. It’s still cool though.

So it has always been a Ninja Tune shtick to have old school samples peppered throughout their jams, but this new release from DJ Food has a distinctive sound we’re used to. For instance, one of our favorite DJ Food tracks of all time is DJ Food fear. Ken Nordine - “The Ageing Young Rebel:” [audio:dj food feat ken nordine - the ageing young rebel.mp3] That came out over 11 years ago, and this release from DJ Food also incorporates new styles from the guys, of course, and they’re heading in a direction that we like. To be clear, the last DJ Food album, Kaleidoscope, and it’s also 11 years old. This is a pretty exciting release for any DJ Food fans. The Search Engine is set for release on February 7, 2012.

Press:

Eleven years after the last DJ Food album release (“Kaleidoscope”), Strictly Kev and various friends, associates and like-minded collaborators return with a new full-length. The Search Engine distills the bests parts from three EPs worth of material into a continuous 56 minute album of unbridled creativity.

Collaborations abound in the form of vocal appearances from Natural Self (aka Nathaniel Pearn), JG Thirlwell (Foetus, Streoid Maximus etc.) and The The’s Matt Johnson. The latter reprises his vocal on a cover of his own track “GIANT,” nearly thirty years after its first release. Musical hook-ups include 2econd Class Citizen, who trades sample-attacks with Strictly for the suite of nine tracks that make up the 11 minute “Magpie Music.” Dr. Rubberfunk lends his drumming skills to the opening track and old DJ food partner Solid Steel’s DJ add their own ingredients to the mix.

While there isn’t a single concept behind the record, certain themes twine their way through the music. In particular, the twin retro-future icons, astronauts and robots, float and bleep their way across the surface of the album, from the Henry Flint cover art onwards. Perhaps best known for his groundbreaking work on the 2000AD comic, Flint gave Kev access to a caché of his personal drawings to colour as well as a creating a new work specifically for the project.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to all those who associate the DJ Food name with the early 90’s “Jazz Brakes” records is just how heavy The Search Engine is. Styled as a kind of psychedelic rock album made with samplers, Strictly Kev has not been afraid to frug the fuck out, with thundering drum work and fuzz bass perhaps the central musical signature of his work.

Reflecting Strictly’s work as a designer as well as a musician (he had to take the whole of 2010 off from recording the record while he did all the design for Ninja’s 20th “XX” anniversary) the album comes in a number of formats: regulard CD digipak, download, comic book with CD and a 7” flexi-disc of a bonus track with an exclusive remix 12”, comic and flexi-disc.

As for the title, Kev explains that, “the way we live every day is helped by search engines of many shapes and sizes. Some people think they control and influence how we work and play. In this case though, the Search Engine could be something waiting to be found out in the vastness of space…” Thrusters on full…

There’s a pretty cool DJ Food website. Check it out.