The Empty Hall Sessions

Named after the kava root, which is used to create libations in areas ranging from the Pacific outreaches through Greece and Spain (variants are banned in much of Europe for supposed liver damage), Austrian producer Thomas Potz releases his debut album under this pseudonym, a full-length collection of broken beats formed into upright space funk, courtesy of vocalist Noemi, whose Björk-like vocal delivery will certainly broaden the appeal of these mushy beats. At times ridiculous, such on the overly hyper "The Gambler," Kava fairs much better when softly nudging the nu-jazz formula of beats into warped territory as found on "The Button in My Head," or the cosmic dissipation of the predictably mellow closer "Feelwell," if only because while the tempo is down compared to the rest of the album, the choppiness of the beat and seeming spontaneity of the sound effects are too at odds to be relaxing. Of course, Potz can also deliver a straight club jam, like the wah-Rhodes and robo vocal chorus found on "The Outside Game." The press machine will try to convince you that this disc follows in the Austrian tradition of mutant dub-jazz of Kruder & Dorfmeister. But it is consistently too fast, too weird, and too original to follow in the huge-selling Vienna duo's overly copied footsteps. If forced to make a comparison, the infinitely varied yet perpetually quirky sound of Cheap Records might make for a geographical equation. Still, why not just leave this record to its own devices. It holds up perfectly well.