Why is it expected that rhyme and reason must accompany everything? There’s rarely a moment of the day that goes past where you don’t want the things that happen to and around you quantified. The sun pours through the open window and you’re probably as likely to query the weatherman’s shoddy wisdom than just peel off your top and bathe in it. Hear Chris Martin crooning unspecifically on the radio and you’ll likely question his motivation, not to mention that of those who have elevated him to such a privileged position. And good on you. Spill your cup of coffee and you’d probably seek a public inquiry to admonish yourself of responsibility. But though he’s no doubt a prime contender for a psychological case study – indeed a search for reason – on face value there is no real value in or reason for Bristol based sound-scamp Kid Carpet.
Kid Carpet, you see, is reasonably random. ‘Ideas & Oh Dears’ is certainly. By random we mean the absence of a subscription to predefined mainstream norms. Or the general lack of interfering quality thresholds. But there are boundaries, brick boundaries no less, this isn’t quite eclecticism gone mad. It’s eclecticism gone mad in Toys R Us. It’s the toys taking over, Toy Story on shoddy drugs. Etc. Etc. Etc. He’s a lo-fi eclectic, but musically he’s more Baby Bird than Beck, but then he’s really more Billy Webb of Goldie Lookin’ Chain than Baby Bird. Essentially what that means is that he doesn’t take himself particularly seriously, goofs like a good un, but has an occasional knack with an untoward tune and a few moments of crazy inspiration.
Crud doesn’t think it owns an 18 track album that isn’t a bit rubbish at points, and this is certainly no exception. By the time you get to track 11, the 21 second ‘One Trick Pony’, with Kid singing the title over the tune to Chesney Hawke’s tack classic ‘The One & Only’, you tend to agree. But then can you hold against him what he celebrates so brazenly? And there are still treats to come.
‘Sick Of The Future’ is throwaway fun like EMF with cheekier production, and ‘Hip Hip Hooray’ is the kind of thing Dick Van Dyke might have performed extravagantly in Mary Poppins if Bentley Rhythm Ace had scored it using only electrical instruments costing less than a fiver. ‘Special’ and ‘Green & Pleasant Land’ are slightly moronic jaunts, but come early enough to seem adorable. The skewed love note ‘Your Love’ with its endless inspired couplets is still his most intoxicating moment though. So, plenty of rhyme, little in the way of reason. Stick it on your iPod, or superior equivalent, and let the random function do its work. It’s a great little album, but repeat listens could potentially have very low odds.