Ideas and Oh Dears

A thoroughly entertaining mish-mash of jumble-sale electronica, goofy rapping and resourceful sampling, this is a record that not so much skirts novelty as jumps on it and rams its tongue down its throat. That it holds together at all is entirely down to Patrick's charismatic delivery and idiot-savant intelligence - how else could he get away with singing "I am a one trick pony" to the sound of Chesney Hawkes' "I Am The One And Only"?

So, we get a song called "Green And Pleasant Land", a warmly patriotic number about "vodka, Red Bull and a pint of Tetley's" pieced together out of Casio snare hits and farmyard noises. We get "Special" - essentially, the Magic Roundabout theme tune with extra swearing. And we get a song called "Carrier Bag", which is all about how useful - yes! - carrier bags are. Is Kid Carpet genius or fool? A listen to Ideas And Oh Dears should confirm that the answer lies somewhere maddeningly in-between. --Louis Pattison