Kid Koala

Some of My Best Friends Are DJs, the second album by Canadian DJ Kid Koala, is cut from the same cloth as his earlier records, Carpal Tunnel Syndromeand the Scratchcratchratchatchmixtape (later released as the ScratchappylandEP). But there's no overarching concept this time around, just a series of suites that sound like elaborate jokes, albeit the kind of satirical story gags favored by Steve Martin and Garrison Keillor. "More Dance Music" is a minute-long skit featuring a narrator reminiscing about her romantic evening while listening to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome; it's followed by "Vacation Island," a kitschy instrumental dominated by a dreamy ukulele plucking away. "Flu Season" finds Koala cutting up the sound of a person sneezing: It's allegedly the result of two DJs with colds running into each other.

There are dozens of other random sounds crammed into Some of My Best Friends, making this 30-minute album, which is accompanied by a comic book drawn by Koala himself, sound dense and nearly twice as long as its running time. Thankfully his humorous, ebullient personality makes it all go down as easy as children's cough syrup.