DJ Kid Koala pays homage to the blues

When award-winning DJ Kid Koala began examining his own love of music, it all came back to the blues.

The studio wizard, who has performed with everyone from Radiohead to Sesame Street, tapped deep into those blues roots for his newest record 12 Bit Blues.

"I was connecting the dots back you know through the history of music. Rock came from, jazz came from, hip hop came from the blues. Essentially without the blues there would be no scratch craft," he told CBC’s Eli Glasner.

Montreal-based Kid Koala, real name Eric San, says the blues helped him cope with some recent losses in his life and he was drawn to its rich history for his latest album.

Now 38, San combines international touring with writing graphic novels, such as 2011’s Space Cadet.

For music critics, 12 Bit Blues — his eighth studio album — gives overdue homage to the blues, an art form that’s been all but forgotten by the hip hop generation.

Montreal Gazette music columnist Bernard Perusse says Kid Koala has created something new with the basic building blocks of music.

"It's as if someone took the blueprints called the blues and just tore it into scraps of paper and rebuilt something with the pieces in the sense that you can recognize the pieces but they sound new, they sound fresh," Perusse said.