Birthday Suite is a typically bizarro move from the sonically restless Kody Nielson. First gaining notoriety as the Mint Chicks untamed frontman he's shied away from vocals ever since, hiding his voice behind vocoders or layers of studio effects.
Here, on the first album he's put out under his actual name rather than that of a band (Opossum) or project (Silicon) he's removed his voice altogether.
The obvious inspiration in sonics and presentation is Wendy Carlos' hugely influential, synthesiser-driven Switched on Bach album, which came out in the tail-end of the sixties. This record reimagined the work of the classical composer and reinterpreted his classical hits on the futuristic Moog synthesiser. Radical and mind-expanding at the time, but fairly dated now.
While that influence looms, Nielson isn't beholden to it. His idiosyncratic and funky drumming gives the album its good groove, clattering and rolling away underneath all the arpeggiating vintage synths and melodic whimsy.
