After a weightless galaxy-soaring opener, Auckland hip-hop dance three-piece Kidz in Space throw their debut album a few hard punches, and raise burning questions over how to define them - heavy pop, strobe-lit hip-hop, Kiwi-Brit rap?
Best Foot Forward is founded on light-footed electronica, but it has a lethargy to
it that means it is best digested while seated. It's followed by the quick-step carnival-like title track featuring Dan Black.
Spooky and distant, in places Ghost doesn't sound like it hails from the mean streets of Auckland, but there's a laggard-enthusiasm - and accent - about every song on the album that means it couldn't have come from anywhere else.
The "space" theme creeps into several tracks (namely the heavy and well-thrashed single Downtime) via alien-monster-like vocorders, but there is a staunchness about this band that means they escape the label "cheesy".
Trashy-hip? Party-grit? Perhaps. In Downtime, and everywhere else on the album, a heavy fuzz hangs overhead like an industrial smog that stops tracks skidding off across a dance floor.
Flipping between a lazy love song in On the Road and rooting for fellow geeks in Number 1 ("I wanna know where the cool people go on a Saturday night") then dragging listeners by the ear lobes in the fresh and forlorn final song, Coming Home, it's a bit of a chaotic album, but it seems these boys thrive on a bit of mess.
Stars: 3/5
Verdict: These Kidz are a'ight
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