The latest offering from Kenneth James Gibson at album length sees Orac, the seattle based minimal dancefloor techno label, maintaining a familiar and reliable level of quality. The sounds are all perfectly arranged, some added breaks and vocal clips keeps it lively and there’s some maximum minimal variation to the music: horns are juggled, radio receivers twiddled, signature funkadelics throughout. “Your words are necessary” seems to intercept some alien transmissions during the build-up, then shows those self-same aliens some muscular minimal bassline flex, ideal for a good avant-garde house party or some unashamed deep discotheque action. The extremely popular “Saw-saw soup” appears in a radically extended form, sounding just as big as ever it did, harming only a few animals in its making. “Cemento” is the turning point, where the sounds become more driving and less cut up, then comes some gracious levity on Garbanzo Love adding a lumpy coda of distilled loops, like perhaps the Dreck crew on abnormal doses of ritalin. “Beyond speech” smudges the bass, clicks the cut and the whole is a satisfying and entirely useful piece of dancefloor ammunition, which perfectly fits the dynamics of a solid, bumpin album. Ace.

— boomkat

From the collection of the many eclectronic guises of Kenneth James Gibson (including Eight Frozen Modules) comes what I feel is his best yet: [a]pendics shuffle. Armed with a deadly debut album on Orac, Gibson wants you to know that his influences not only dwell in the subconscious hard drives of modern-day minimalists, but also in the dusty circuit-boards of good old-fashioned Detroit house fanatics. This is skewed, skittery ghetto-tech at its best. Juicy loops of thick bass and rubbery samples over insistently funky beats run rampant throughout Helicopter Hearts’ appetizing 8 tracks. There’s plenty of room for an excellent listening experience on the virtual dancefloor here; the subtle change-ups in “Garbanzo Love,” the gutter-funk of “Dirty Hood,” the dementedly darkened pop sensibility of “Saw Saw Soup (Miso Mix)” and the all out rump shaking grooves of “My Helicopter Heart” and “Cemento” are what get my ankles popping in 4/4 time. I definitely recommend Helicopter Hearts to anyone who gets misty-eyed whenever a sentimental DJ decides to sneak in some classics during his (or her) free-before 10 PM set; or, at the very least, finicky tech heads in need of some meaty beats fresh from their local record shop.

— John Reveles, Igloo

Kenneth James Gibson issues music under a dizzying number of guises—Bal Cath, Dubloner, Eight Frozen Modules, Premature Wig, Reverse Commuter—but it would be difficult to imagine anything topping this [a]pendics.shuffle material. Having previously issued 12-inch discs on Proptronix, Narita, and Orac (Saw Saw Soup plus Unclassified Computer Funk, a split venture with Paradroid), Gibson now drops the coup de grâce with Helicopter Hearts, fifty minutes of absolutely superb computer micro-funk.

All eight cuts maintain an amazingly high standard: the opening title track slathers glitchy whirrs over a chugging stomp of slithering bass lines, while dubby smears strafe bubbly microhouse in “Your Words Are Necessary” as bionic voice croaks exhort minions onto the dance floor. The percolating “Saw Saw Soup (Miso Mix)” begins with steely dub pulses accented by off-kilter stabs before upping the genius ante even further with funky bass lines and vocals, the latter alternating between whispered coos (“Everybody you know has a microphone/Not everybody you know you know can go so slow”) and warped syllabic distortions. With tight stutter-funk rhythms bombarded by bleeping synths, “Garbanzo Love” encapsulates the potent danceability of the Orac sound while dizzying skirmishes of voice slices, blips, and wipes unfurl over percolating fields of skipping hi-hats and hand claps in “Cemento.” Throughout this spectacular collection, Gibson deepens the [a]pendics.shuffle sound by not only casting a visionary gaze forward but by referencing a Chain Reaction past via steely smears that dubbily echo throughout the songs’ cavernous hallways.

— Ron Schepper, textura

Verdammt. gleich 8 Tracks, ich vermute mal das nehmen wir als Album. Und was könnte einen grundverwirrten mehr erfreuen als ein so zerstückeltes [a]pendix.shuffle Album? Kaum was. Klar. Zerstäubte Sounds überall, deepe grummelig weiche Basslines, funkige zerzauselte Grooves und Musik die immer bereit ist schon an der nächsten Ecke ein Wagnis einzugehen, genau so stelle ich mir die Weiterentwicklung minimaler Musik vor und dafür steht Orac ja - auch wenn sie nicht wollen - schon lange. Ein Carnival an Ideen.

Damn.  What amounts to 8 tracks, and I’ll assume this time that we can call an album.  And what could make a more joyful confusion than such a cut-up [a]pendix.shuffle album?  Hardly anything. Clearly.  Sounds spattered everywhere, deeply murmuring soft basslines, funky mussed-up Grooves and music that’s always waiting to go on an adventure around the next corner, to just the places I stand in the advancement of minimal music where before and in return Orac has stood - even if they don’t want - a long time ago.  A carnival of ideas.

— bleed, de:bug

Die Zeiten da Rock’n’Roll aus Kalifornien kam und die Eingeweide in Wallung versetzt hat sind vorbei. Doch auch elektronisch können die Innereien zum Rocken gebracht werden und genau darauf hat es der Kalifornier Kenneth James Gibson alias [a]pendics.shuffle wohl auch abgesehen: Mit seinem Debütalbum „Helicopter Hearts“ schließt er an seine bisherigen Produktionen an und groovt mit frickeligem Micro-House – Krikor und Akufen lassen grüßen. Die acht Tracks auf “Helicopter Hearts” bilden ein rhythmisch homogenes Klangbild, in dem Gibson nie zu viel gibt, aber mit gekonntem Einsatz der einzelnen Elemente trotzdem stets alles im Griff hat. Dabei lässt er den Sub-Bass, der sich spielerisch um eine simple und stringente Bassdrum entfaltet, den Ton angeben und entwickelt so einen unscheinbaren, aber dennoch stark groovenden Sound. Darüber benutzt er eine Vielzahl verspult-elektrisierender Samples und leicht surreale Gesangselemte, was dem Album einiges an Potential für die frühen Morgenstunden verleiht.

The times of Rock’n’Roll from California have come and gone—the engorged bowels have spent. But also electronically can guts be brought to rock, and that’s just what the Californian Kenneth James Gibson alias [a]pendics.shuffle has done differently: His debut album “Helicopter Hearts” joins his past productions in grooving with computery Micro-House – Krikor and Akufen lassen grüßen. The eight tracks of “Helicopter Hearts” form a rhythmically similar sound-picture, in which Gibson never gives too much, but with skillful use of the individual elements always has everything in his grasp.  He lets the sub-bass, which unfolds playfully around a simple and strident bass drum, set the tone, which creates an inconspicuous yet starkly groovy sound.  Over this he uses a multitude of blippy electrified samples and light surreal song elements, which lends the album a potential for the early morning hours.

— AW, Groove

Forget desiccated Teutonic kicks and chin-stroking dub mechanics—over the past year, Seattle-based Orac Records has been quietly releasing minimal techno records that actually induce dancing. Kenneth Gibson, aka [a]pendics.shuffle, has been a big part of this, infusing the requisite clipped sounds and micro-samples with graceful, sinuous funk. Helicopter Hearts is his first full-length, and it’s more a collection of dancefloor singles than a proper album. Still, it’s as enjoyable for the head as it is for the feet. “Cemento” has seductive female vocal stabs, “Saw Saw Soup” has an irresistible bassline, and “Baneful Lather” manages to be both dreamy and perky. The highlight here is “Garbanzo Love”, which begins as a schaffel track, but switches fluidly to a bouncy, quirky 4/4 groove, with a brief detour back to schaffel. The changeups will keep listeners on their toes, a rare feat for a genre often afraid to go below the belt.

— Cosmo Lee, popmatters.com