Jon Kennedy - Useless Wooden Toys - Album Review

11 May 2005

Jon Kennedy
Useless Wooden Toys It seems that Grand Central Records can do no wrong at the moment with this astonishing follow to Jon Kennedys debut album ‘We’re just waiting for you now’ which was released on Tru Thoughts. It really is hard to pin him down and pigeon-hole him as to his individual style from this album because it’s so eclectic. You can tell that this guy has a huge record collection and he’s not afraid to use it. After not being able to stop playing the album for a few days it came as no surprise that the majority of the sounds were recorded at Sruff Towers in Stockport as some of the songs do have that kirky break sound to them which really makes me thing of a cross between Mr Scruff and maybe

document.write('<SCR'+'IPT src="http://ads.contactmusic.com/advertpro/servlet/view/banner/javascript/zone?zid=88&pid=15&custom1=y&random='+Math.floor(89999999*Math.random()+10000000)+'" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">'+'IPT>'); a thinking mans Propellerheads although I don’t really think that this does it enough justice. What was a surprise, however, was that all of the sounds he recorded for this album, the melodious guitar, the drums and scratches and keys were done so by the man himself. His use of real instruments to produce down beat trip and hip hop astounds causing more comparisons to the legendary outfits brought to the stage by Roni Size. Jon Kennedy also has a residency at Grand Centrals ‘Friends and Family’ nights AND takes his live performance seriously with a six piece band with Jon on the drums, Dan Coggins (from Sweet Leredo) on guitar, Ben Thomas on Bass and Naomi Hart on Keys, Sarah Scott (also from the Leredo stable) on Vocals and the widely acclaimed Flute and Alto Sax from Bernard Moss. Jon Kennedy has created a stylish must have for the intelligent beat generation. Pete Ainsley