Kai Moa’s debut EP Some of My Best Friends Are…Electric Sheep is an ambitious introduction to a producer with a broad musical vocabulary. Across the release, IDM, industrial electronics, jazz and techno are brought together in a way that feels exploratory without becoming unfocused.
The opening track ‘≠ What It Is’ is the clearest example of that approach. It begins with fractured rhythms and harsher electronic textures before moving into a more spacious section led by piano and jazz-inspired harmonies. His background as a professional drummer becomes especially important here, with a live drum passage adding a more organic sense of movement before the track eventually shifts into darker techno.
That sequence says a lot about the EP as a whole. He’s clearly interested in contrast, but the transitions are generally handled with enough control that the music doesn’t feel assembled simply for novelty value.
‘(Sea)’ provides one of the more effective changes of pace. More ambient than much of the surrounding material, it offers a quieter and more spacious moment within the release. The track helps break up the denser passages and shows that he is equally comfortable working with restraint, atmosphere and softer dynamics.
Elsewhere, the influence of artists such as Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Autechre can be heard in the detailed programming and interest in texture, though the EP avoids leaning too heavily on any single reference point. Although when his voice suddenly crops up in the middle of closing track ‘0%’, he shows a surprisingly tender side of himself, even for the enigmatic approach he had taken up until then.
Some of My Best Friends Are…Electric Sheep is a confident first EP from Kai Moa. It presents a producer willing to move between contrasting styles while maintaining a coherent atmosphere, and suggests there’s plenty of room for the project to develop further.