Phon-O-Victo documents Kid Koala and Martin Tétreault’s 2005 Victoriaville festival performance. It’s a rare collaboration that’s a dead on improv hit. It works because Koala and Tétreault wisely built on their musical commonalities — instructional recordings, jazz, etc. — to construct the project’s creative apex. But Kid Koala, whose turntable virtuosity is well-known, and self-proclaimed “sonic conceptualist” Martin Tétreault, spinner of experimental noise compositions, structured their improv moves — mainly transitional cuts and cues — making this a wickedly inspired set. The duo’s vinyl-only rule, featuring the music of some of their fellow festival performers, adds an edge. The ensuing concert is seven dense tracks of free-jazz, hilarious sound art, spoken word, noise freak-outs and many “happy” sound accidents. Tétreault frequently sets the mix-down tone here, with Koala interjecting hype scratch patterns. Check out Godzilla a les bleus, where Tétreault gleefully mangles a blues groove that’s further disrupted by Koala’s abstract scratch fuckery. Tétreault’s love for avant-noise figures prominently here — listen for his mixing of Boredoms singer Yamatsuka Eye’s mental shrieks into Michel au pays des merveilles. Phon-O-Victo’s biggest surprise is how the duo’s symbiotic turntablism draws out their influences. At several points, Koala sounds eerily like himself and Coldcut combined, circa the Beats & Pieces era. And Tétreault’s noisy mix snippets occasionally channel a Naked City sonic barrage. Phon-O-Victo is a brilliant experiment in abstract and pop-culture turntablism.
