id Koala rose to fame in the early ’00’s as a DJ, or what today might more accurately be called a turntablist. His skill set is decidedly a traditional one: scratching, beat juggling, manipulating vinyl in real time. His signature move—adjusting the pitch of individual notes by hand in order to coax warped, theremin-like sounds out of records—extends the metaphor of turntable-as-instrument further than just about any other DJ has managed. Still, he’s known as much for his mixes as for his technique. Well before artists like Girl Talk popularized the idea of mashups, Koala was playing genre-bending, sample-heavy live sets, some of which were opening gigs for the likes of Radiohead, Björk, and DJ Shadow. Yet, despite considerable success as a DJ, he’s always seemed artistically restless, collaborating with everyone from Amon Tobin to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, joining supergroups like Deltron 3030 and even penning comics and graphic novels.
Given how melodic his playing is, it was probably only a matter of time before Koala walked away from the decks in order to try his hand at conventional instruments. 2011’s Space Cadet: Original Still Picture Score was a step in this direction; while it was composed in part on turntables, its melodies rely heavily on his own piano, bass and viola playing. Music to Draw to: Satellite represents an even bigger departure for Koala: Its songs are composed entirely on guitar, bass and synth with only occasional vinyl flourishes. What’s more, he's brought in hushed Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini to add vocals to his compositions, a first.
Even if most of these songs don’t feel totally polished, nearly all are brimming with little sonic details that remind us of Koala’s ability to craft evocative sounds: scratches that swoosh past like gusts of wind, noises that clatter like machinery, garbled chatter that sounds like it’s being beamed in from a faraway satellite. It’s in these small moments that Koala leverages his greatest strengths. Take, for instance, his subtle scratching on tracks like “Fallaway,” which hint at the finespun avant-turntablism of Fog’s Ether Teeth. Listening to Music to Draw to: Satellite, it’s hard not to wish that Koala would lean just a bit more on his core skills, though there’s admittedly something admirable about his willingness to be seen as a novice, rather than a master.
| A1 | The Observable Universe |
| A2 | Adrift |
| A3 | Transmission 1 |
| B1 | Fallaway |
| B2 | Perihelion |
| B3 | Photons |
| B4 | Beneath The Heat |
| B5 | Novachord |
| C1 | Transmission 2 |
| C2 | Collapser |
| C3 | Transmission 3 |
| C4 | The Hubble Constant |
| C5 | Satellite |
| C6 | Apoapsis |
| D1 | Nightfall |
| D2 | The Darkest Day |
| D3 | Epilogue |
| D4 | Nightfall: Pale Blue |
