He released one of the subgenre’s definitive late-period records on his own label—which became a fantastical sandbox for friends and fellow weirdos—then transcended it entirely on 2018’s Knock Knock, one of those Technicolor albums that renders real life sepia-toned by comparison. “It’s less competition to make music without the dancefloor in mind,” DJ Koze mused on a recent Resident Advisor podcast. The enthusiasm around Hit Parade, the 2023 LP Kozalla made with art-pop matriarch Róisin Murphy, cratered when transphobic remarks posted to the singer’s personal Facebook page were made public. I’ll meet you there.’” Hit Parade was supposed to be his star-making moment as much as Murphy’s, the final stage in a transmutation from eccentric dancefloor wizard to global pop savant. It’s taken a couple extra years, but Koze has finally arrived: Music Can Hear Us is a giddy collision of good taste and what John Waters called “good bad taste,” brought into harmonious coexistence by an artist whose greatest asset is his inextinguishable supply of curiosity and childlike wonder.