Imagine if, instead of being weaned on acoustic guitar and learning later to program, you came of age on the laptop, then one day tried an old six-string. That's the flip evoked in Kid's modern spin on folk-rock. "2" scores strummy chords with the postmodern version of a toe-tap: the drum machine.
On his latest release, the logically titled " 2, " Irish-born Ciaran MacFeely (aka Simple Kid) has moved on from the cut and paste styling of his groundbreaking debut 1 to a more organic approach to the writing and production.
While it still retains many of the memorable features that jolted critics and fans on his first outing, 2 moves Simple Kid's sound in a more earthy direction, with linear sonance and focused production: less laptop, more guitar, harmonica and banjo. However, he still knows how to throw a party with tracks like "Lil King Kong" and the stream of consciousness lyrics of "Serotonin" (described by NME as Radiohead meets DJ Shadow).