2 min read
Depending on who you ask, KAI LONDON is either the next Fred again.. or a Porter Robinson tribute act. It’s the kind of split that only happens to artists worth arguing about. His new single, “Fred on Mushrooms Again,” pokes fun at the first half of that comparison and turns it into a bit.
The concept is as literal as the title. Watching a Fred again.. clip, Kai’s girlfriend noted that the guy always looks so serious. It sent Kai down a rabbit hole with one question at the bottom: what would Fred again.. sound like as a child? He answered it by manipulating a flute into the little green alien voice that anchors the drop; a playful build where the source material is pensive, cartoonish made by a sugar-high kid poking at a bunch of synths.
Underneath the joke is a real challenge. The thing Kai admires about Fred again.. is the balance; club-ready beats on one side, emotional, high-IQ composition on the other. “Fred on Mushrooms Again” is Kai trying to hold both at once: a track built to take the listener on a magical journey and still make them dance. It helps that he doesn’t come at this like a dance-music lifer. A multi-instrumentalist raised on N.E.R.D, Nirvana, and D’Angelo, he’ll happily admit electronic music rarely lands on his own playlists which is exactly why his version of a Fred again.. homage sounds like nobody else’s but his own.
Whether it reads as tribute or roast is up to you.
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