- "...a snack-sized album more akin to an EP but with more tracks, what it lacks in length it certainly makes up for in flavor. Mark Scanlan, the beat scientist behind KAL, works out a series of tracks that possess a sort of dystopian, sci-fi funk. They can be often rubbery in sound but lurch about unexpectedly like the charmingly creaky "War All The Time" with its heavily chopped and spliced guitar line that stumbles through fields of lo-fi drums that stretch and snap or the psychedelic "Down To The Dozens" with its breathy flutes and vague steel drums floating in the background.
Parallels could be drawn between KAL and DJ Shadow, Pete Samples, and DJ Spooky but Scanlan draws on a wider body of material than just the world of recombinant music. "In Opposition" sees him dipping a toe into a dirge-like ballad that comes closer to the work of the psych-folk music found in the work of Guido Möbius and Bibio though in a more traditional manner. Brushing against ambient soundscape is "We Have The Strength But We Don't Have The Will" which floats on lazy synth pads and loping drum beats, a blissful head nodder that will have your eyelids dropping and a slow smile spreading across your face.
Overall, 'Sunshine, Shadows and Luck' is worth grabbing; short but sweet.
"- candied pop [july 2006]
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