Light Taker – Count Kush (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Pop, like most generic descriptions, has always been too broad a tag to be much use to anyone. It is increasingly redundant as a description, as the modern age sees popular music split into new forms before coming back together in myriad new amalgams. Technology obviously helps drive this, but as society splinters into niche worlds and the internet boosts global communication and cultural spread, artists can often become a genre of one. Count Kush feels like he is just such an artist.

You could spend weeks unweaving the sonic threads and musical building blocks from which he forges his music, but pop music was never meant to be taken that seriously. Best to enjoy the ride and nod sagely as you recognise its various strands and influences you hear running through. This is about fun, not academia!

“All New Me” draws us in with gentle, skittering, trap-infused beats, themselves a platform for oriental cascades and dance grooves as Kush narrates the path to rebuilding a better version of himself. It is short, sharp, and shockingly direct, a characteristic that runs through this collection. “Proton Smasher,” which follows, is more eclectic, more futuristically trippy, more avant-dance, more adventurous and by the time we get to “Designer Drugs” we find ourself in a place where eighties techo is subsumed into a more industrial and metalic-tasting place, the sound of automated car production lines becomeing sentient and wanting to while away the hours making music. Well, you never know!!!

“One Hit Knockout” shows us how masterful Count Kush’s blends are, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know enough to tell you which genres or musical quarters he garners these sounds from but the throbbing bass pulse, one that sound like it is an acoustic weapon rather than a sonic tool, the crunching sound textures and the spoken word deliveries are the most compelling thing that I have heard in a long time. Otherworldly and out there… wherever there is!

And then tracks like “Fly2u!” lean into a more dance-pop sound but are still pulled in several directions, creatively auto-tuned, stark, and sophisticated. This is a glimpse of the sonic shape of things to come.

In this post-genre world, trying to pigeonhole artists has become increasingly futile. Count Kush now destroys the idea, once and for all.