4. Ride Away Getaway – Agent K
Agent K is the other recording name of ex-Birmingham drummer, keyboardist and programmer Kaidi Tatham — perhaps best known for his work with Bugz in the Attic.
His music occupies that area of jazz-flavoured dance music known as Broken Beat, and mixes a straight four/four dance rhythm with, well, rhythmic surprises.
I love this stuff. When it’s good — and particularly, when it’s clever — you can’t beat it for uncoordinated dancing (my particular speciality). But I guess what I like about it is the extent to which it does what I like about jazz: it’s a nice mix of the visceral and the cerebral. That is, you can respond to it purely physically, but it’ll stand up to a bit of musical scrutiny.
Tatham uses nice chord shapes, applies a technique Art Blakey used to call ‘dropping bombs’, and never forgets that his audience is listening loud and with their fancy shoes on.
Feed The Cat is a really great album. Or at least, it’s two-thirds of a great album. There’s too much of the self-indulgent, almost-a-concept-album, thematic filler skits and transitional material — but all of the significant tracks (that is, anything over about 6 minutes) are this good. This one just happens to be my favourite.
You’ll probably hear more Kaidi Tatham here on The Wireless. There’s a great remix he did of Washington outfit Fertile Ground that you should probably hear. That’ll come soon.
In the meantime, have a listen to the track — and if you like it, why not pick up the album?
