Album Review: DJ Koze - "Music Can Hear Us"

Music Can Hear Us is refreshingly meditative, more patient, and it launches the listener into space and into the unknown. DJ Koze remains to be a driving creative force who pushes the boundaries of electronic music into another dimension.

Pampa - 2025

Every once in a blue moon, German DJ and music producer Stefan Kozalla, aka DJ Koze, will release a new full length album. And whenever it finally drops, it feels like an event. His most recent studio albums, 2013's Amygdala and its follow up, 2018's Knock Knock, are epic in size, cinematic in presentation, and expansive when listened to with headphones or when blasting through the speakers in your Honda Civic. They're both collections full of a diverse array of tracks that seem like they may clash on paper, but when focused on, you hear the attention to detail and planning behind every sequence and production decision. They're full of fantastic guest appearances to, ranging from unlikely collaborations like Speech (of Arrested Development fame) to Caribou, Matthew Dear, Róisín Murphy, and former Pampa signee Sophia Kennedy. Ranging from atmospheric electronica, weird and obtuse sampling, quirky experimentation, dance, hip hop, funk, acoustic pop, and ambient, Koze never seems like he's chasing trends, but rather he's in his own world through his vision.

These two records are some of the best dance and electronic music has had to offer over the past fifteen years, while singles like "Pick Up" remain to be some of my all time favorites and could easily be considered as modern day classics. So as you can see, the bar is set pretty high for his next venture. Music Can Hear Us, Koze's first new album in seven years, is ambitious in scope at fifteen songs and over an hour in length. This record's even more atmospheric, dreamy, and transportive even if there's a calm, meditative approach to many of these songs. The eight minute album opener "The Universe In a Nutshell" perfectly encapsulates what Koze's trying to accomplish here. It's one of the most beautiful and perfect songs he's ever created. It takes you to another universe, even if it takes its sweet time to get you there. It's purely the definition of "it's about the journey, not the destination." The steady percussion, the glitchy vocal hums are patience testing, but it triumphantly pays off with the euphoric, laser bright sounds coming from an unknown instrument. I can't figure it out and I'm not exactly an expert here, but take my word for it when I say that it's truly awesome. "Pure Love," featuring some autotuned and warbled vocals from Gorillaz/Blur frontman Damon Albarn, was a bit underwhelming at first listen as a single, but in the context of the album, it's grown on me more. The nocturnal grooves are infectious. Like his previous album, there are also a few songs that feature vocals from Sophia Kennedy, "Der Fall" and "Die Gondel." They both are pulled off effortlessly: her German singing on "Der Fall" is especially gorgeous and dreamy along with its ever growing instrumental, while "Die Gondel" is darkly inviting. Kennedy remains to have a striking presence in the vocal booth.

"Wie schön du bist" features the tried and true quirkiness that listeners love from Koze: a weird lead melody reminiscent of one from a classic children's story, a sticky and pretty instrumental, and a great performance by German rock group Arnim and the Düsseldorf Düsterboys. Koze still finds a way to add playfulness and humor into his work with "The Talented Mr. Tripley," a quick little detour that sounds like if you fell into a pool of acid in space and you end up splitting into two selves while vibrating uncontrollably. "Unbelievable" sounds like if you threw a classic jazz vocal standard into a blender on an intergalactic planet. "What About Us" is a light and spacey tune that twinkles like the stars. Soap&Skin's ambient contributions to both "A Dónde Vas?" and "Vamos a la Playa" definitely fit in with the rest of the album. The album has a welcomingly stellar trio of bangers near its end. "Brushcutter" is fast paced and intense with its breakbeats. "Buschtaxi" is an eight minute monster that sounds like this album's "Pick Up." "Aruna" is a jumpy jaunt with bird chirps and animal shrieks, bubbling bass freakouts, fantastic guitar licks, and outstanding alien like vocal harmonies. "Umaoi" closes the album in spectacular fashion with a beautiful vocal performance from Japanese vocal band MAREWREW over some lush bass, light percussion, and what sound like varying marimbas and other percussive instruments.

The album might sound like a disappointment at first to some due to the moodier and more atmospheric sound and one that has a lesser amount of bangers than on Knock Knock, but Music Can Hear Us is a welcomingly different album experience. It's refreshingly meditative, more patient, and it launches the listener into space and into the unknown, even further than his previous output did. It's beautiful, stunning, has a fresh variety of guests and styles, and above all it's an excellent album experience, one that you should expect from a veteran artist like DJ Koze. There are plenty of memorable moments to choose from and it's one that you should spend the time and listen either on a good quality pair of headphones or sound system. Music Can Hear Us is certainly an album that lives up to the hype that Amygdala and Knock Knock successfully built up. DJ Koze remains to be a driving creative force who pushes the boundaries of electronic music into another dimension.

My Rating: 9 / 10

Favorite Songs: "The Universe In a Nutshell," "Umaoi," "Buschtaxi," "Aruna," "Der Fall," "Pure Love," "The Talented Mr. Tripley," "Wie schön du bist"