Kid606

Violent Turd

It’s a shame that The Action Packed Mentallist Brings You the Fucking Jams is the most listenable Kid606 record yet, because once the publishers for D-12, Mary J. Blige, the Buggles, Missy Elliott, Bubba Sparxxx, Yello, A-ha, and Black Sabbath find out the mailing address for its New Zealand label, the disc will be quite impossible to find. Like the KLF in the ’80s, San Francisco’s Kid, aka Miguel Depedro, is torn between the sound of a table saw cutting steel and the new Kylie Minogue single, so he pretty much just gives you both. If you missed any earlier releases, you can get the idea of his MO by sticking your head inside a staticky clothes dryer and whacking the sides for a bit, all while tuned in to some supereclectic radio station. It sounds annoying, and it often is, but Kid’s knack for excellent song titles (“MP3 Killed the CD Star,” “Kiddy Needs a New Pair of Laptops”) and apparent love/hate relationship with every volume of Now That’s What I Call Music keep the proceedings just on the right side of novelty album. That’s largely because while most DJs are trying their best to work their way into a Mitsubishi commercial, Depedro is more than happy to make a record that can immediately clear a Starbucks; it’s also because Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” sounds freakin’ great at 160 bpm. By the time Depedro is having his way with poor Thom Yorke—on “Smack My Glitch Up,” wherein the vocal for “Creep” is slowed down and amplified until it’s almost unbearable—the point has sort of been made, and you’ll probably be about ready to stick a pencil in your ears, anyway. But depending on your level of experience with some combination of psychosis, controlled substances, and watching cable TV on mute, The Action Packed Mentallist might just be your party album of the year. —Andrew Beaujon