Ost & Kjex - Cajun Lunch

Artist: Ost & Kjex

Title: Cajun Lunch

Label:Diynamic

Catalog #: DIYNAMICCD04

Genre: House/Electro/Disco

Release Date: June 14, 2010

Rating: 6.5

The concept reads like a Confucian paradox. Nine songs with different sounds, different grooves, different harmonies and different lyrics are all, somehow, exactly the same.  They start to run together, and soon you’re left to contemplate the sound of one handclap.

Cajun Lunch, the new album from Ost & Kjex, is one of the most unified records I’ve ever heard—we’ll talk about the two tracks that don’t fit in a second. To some, “unified” will be a synonym for “unbearable,” and there’s no way around it. But if you think of it as a concept album—like a period movie in which, oh God, they’re going to wear those costumes the whole time—it becomes clear what these men have achieved.

This is the record Jamiroquai heard in their dreams. This is the invincible ghost of KC & the Sunshine Band, come to haunt the shit out of the old disco house. It’s got my favorite fill in recent memory (a piano contortion 1:08 into “Mozambiquetravelplan”); it’s got “Continental Lover,” the confident single whose three-chord lead will be as recognizable as Beethoven’s “dun-dun-dun-dunnn” come Labor Day.

But the duo make a few missteps in crafting such a consistent product. It’s full of embarrassing songwriting and steel guitar, and the two songs that don’t sound like the rest of the album, “Bluecheeseblues,” parts 1 and 2, are unlistenable genre-mutts that belong in an HBO drama’s title sequence. “Cajun Lunch” hinges on a pitch-shifted falsetto that falls in the uncanny valley between castrato and hip-hop chipmunk sample, and on the same song, we sit through male and female voices chanting “don’t deny me no love,” wondering if they’d ever just thought of getting together and moving on to the next track. 45 minutes into the record, “The Yellow Man” has lyrics about cheese.

The first time I listened to it all the way through, I thought I was going to give the record a 3 or 4 out of 10, because how dare you make nine identical songs without dynamics or sonic innovation? But the more I played it, the more I found that that kind of criticism wouldn’t get us anywhere. White rococo house isn’t inherently ridiculous, and this stuff is so careful and intentional. Some people are just really into their identity, and it’s more interesting to judge them on their craftsmanship.

Every other jab would be kind of petty. It would be like making fun of that 40-year-old with the fedora and the soul patch that’s been at the club since 9:30. It’s no good if you just attack the bowling shirt. You’ve got to take the style on its own terms, and realize that it’s quite a feat to fit all those pieces together, to be so consistent, to be so seamless. And it’s totally modular, so lots of people could find some use for one or two parts. But you wish someone would drop the hint that they’ve gone a little overboard.

So, Ost & Kjex and Fedora Guy, don’t take it personally. Maybe I’m just not mature enough for your style yet.

-Travis Korte

Tracks:

1. Mosambique Travelplan

2. We Got Ticket To Moon

3. Continental Lover
4. A New Deal
5. Cajun Lunch
6. Seraphine

7. Bluecheeseblues (Part 1)
8. Bluecheeseblues (Part 2)
9. The Yellow Man
10. Blue Bird
11. Let’s Set The Times
12. The Spooner