"Some of the music we play is really not geared for your bumpin' enjoyment. It's geared for you to think. So, for those of you who don't think too much, I'm just tellin' you about that shit before we drop it on you."
--Anonymous, from DJ Food's "The Ageing Young Rebel."

I would love to know what it is that the lords of funk-infused electronic music monolith Ninja Tune Records have been slipping in the water cooler for the last couple of years. Seriously, Ginko Biloba has never worked this well for anyone I know. From the mind-blowing digital revelations of prodigy Amon Tobin to the rapid-fire Year 3000 fusion of Clifford Gilberto to the dope-beat-meets-new-age hybrid tracks of Animals on Wheels, the evil geniuses at Ninja Tune have repeatedly breathed new life into electronica's ailing frame. Admittedly, some of this is not exactly the type of thing one would wish to play to impress that cute coffeehouse girl. Unless she really is as perfect as my-- I mean, "one's"-- fantasies would dictate. It's an acquired taste, to be sure. But unlike a fine wine or cheese, the cops will never smell it on your breath.

DJ Food's Kaleidoscope breaks the mold of previous Ninja Tune releases in that it's immediately accessible, yet not at the expense of musical acumen. Contrary to popular belief, DJ Food is not an individual, but a collective. Coldcut, the masterminds behind Ninja Tune, created the DJ Food moniker with a series of releases comprised of stripped-down beats to be used as deck fodder for aspiring DJs. Hence, the name originally signified that the sounds were "Food" for DJs.

It was sort of like UNICEF, with small children going from rave to rave on Halloween, asking for a donation of vinyl or just a simple 808 sequence for the starving DJs of the world. When Coldcut and DJ Food were slated to appear at the same venue on the same night, conflicts arose and the founding members decided to pass on the torch-- much as Augustus Busch passed on the noble brewing tradition of the Anheuser-Busch alcohol empire so many years ago to his son, Augustus Busch II. The parties primarily responsible for Kaleidoscope are DJs PC (a clever pseudonym for Patrick Carpenter) and Strictly Kev, which gets my vote for coolest DJ name since DJ E-Z Rock.

Now that we can trace the etymology of the group's name back to the Renaissance era, how does it sound? In a word: fabulous. In several words: DJ Food take cues from brilliant DJ vanguards such as DJ Shadow by amassing and utilizing a massive and diverse vinyl collection from whence they glean moments of ingeniousness, and assemble scenic, yet volatile sonic landscapes. DJ Food adhere to no specific genre on Kaleidoscope, dividing the disc nearly equally between derivations of cool and electric jazz and classical music. Shrewdly circumnavigating the potholes left by DJ failures of years passed, DJ Food know to place equal emphasis on both beat and samples, formulating musical schemes which seem to evolve naturally, and regulating a delicate balance of groove and soothe throughout.

On tracks like "Full Bleed," the treacherous rhythms created through a battle with former Tortoise member Bundy K. Brown prove too powerful for the mortal coil to resist. Yet, the understated beats which trickle in and out of a song like "The Riff" or "The Crow..." demonstrate true sovereignty of their musical dominion-- they allow the listener to hear a symphonic tapestry being woven before their very ears. Kaleidoscope does not overpower, but seduces the listener with its subtle blends of percussion and tastefully chosen melodies and backgrounds.

Indeed, taste is a vital word to emphasize here. All of the tracks on Kaleidoscope are executed with such a refined sense of musicality and precise attention to detail that DJ Food are even able to combine the excellent spoken word poetry of Ken Nordine with cool jazz minglings in an eminently enjoyable manner. I'd thought that this was impossible without being thoroughly tawdry, but Kaleidoscope is a clinic in taste for budding DJs. How many DJs could actually pull off a song called "A Splash of Debussy" and not make themselves look ridiculous by initiating an ignorant butchery of classical music? (It's a rhetorical question.) I can think of very few, but DJ Food are the first to accomplish such a feat, to my knowledge. Kaleidoscope is the superb result of DJs who have mined volumes of vinyl to procure for us only the finest in aural goods. As a sample on "The Riff" soberly asks, "Whatever happened to boogie woogie?" DJ Food have found it shivering in a dark alley, nursed it to health, and convinced it to tell us its story. Listen closely.

-Taylor M. Clark