Annie - 'DJ Kicks' (!K7) Released 17/10/05

After the remarkable success of the ‘2 Many DJs’ album by half of Soulwax it seems to that to be a musician these days you won’t get anywhere without a mad-as-a-bag-of-badgers eclectic mix compilation.

Taking in everything from Death From Above 1979 to Le Tigre, bratty hip hop to rockabilly this is an exemplary work and in a fair world would be the soundtrack to every student party ever. It gets a little silly in places but hey so do student parties. Kicking off with an instrumental that would be at home on Japanese kids TV ‘DJ Kicks’ is at times a little mindbending. The scandavian starlet works a kind of cute naivety that at first seems harmless and friendly but eventually works in taking you to the Dark side and back again, with her own track ‘Gimme Your Money’ coming on like an intense Tom Vek, all solid drums and hard basslines. The vocal on this track really is at pains to show just how talented our DJ here is. This leads into ‘Bow Wow Wow’s’ quite exquisite version of perennial dance floor banger ‘I Want Candy’.

‘DJ Kicks’ goes a little off the rails at times but this is to be expected considering quite how diverse the range of styles is. Acid House rubs up next to Old Skool Hip Hop, Rock n Roll gets cosy with Disco and all kinds of crazy shit is pumping through the speakers in between. It doesn’t quite take you to the moon and back again, but you can always get a taxi and if you do make sure that ‘DJ Kicks’ is in the tape player…