Dutch producer and DJ Coco Bryce has been cooking in the kitchen for well over a decade, but it seems like we’re served a completely different dish each time we come over, though they always smell good and are always nutritious. His refreshingly chameleon nature comes through once again in his newest release on Fremdtunes, the 14-track “Club Tropicana“. Described as having omnivorous musical tastes, Coco definitely presents us with a beautiful spread of saucy club vibes, skweee grinders, and jungle steam. Just loosen that belt and dig in.
The appetizer is “Raw Update,” a vaguely Parisian electro house banger, whose very particular sound echoes in the murky “004.” In the next track, “Polaroid Sunset,” and “That’s Life” we are given something a little more familiar: chopped vocals inextricably attached to bouncing hip hop beats and layered with thick dollops of synth. “Bright Lit,” with its xylophone floating in and out, is a little more gentle and playful. It’s those tracks, plus the haunting boom-bap of “Lily’s Song,” which become the backbone that allows the rest of the record to be fleshed out. His approach is conducive for a lot of cross-pollination and experimentation–and Coco doesn’t seem to be afraid of fusion. “Sonic” is a fast-paced whirlwind of deep 8bit over jungle drumwork, contrasting beautifully with another jungle-inspired yet much more relaxed “Club Tropicana.” With producer Halp on the next track, “Bronze,” Coco bangs out another solid Skweee production. “One Love Holmes,” a collaborative track with Emufucka, sounds like what DatPiff would have sounded like if the ancient Egyptians had internet access. Taking the trap experimentation further, but maybe in the opposite direction, Coco gives us “Lucid” and “Let Me Put My Poems In You.” Both best served chilled, they mix spacey synths, smooth basslines, and in the case of the latter, jazzy noodling in with inconspicuous trap beats that break into seemingly new ground. This smooth trap perfectly epitomizes Coco’s gluttonous nature, not as a showy look-what-I-can-do-mom kind of musical Frankenstein, but simply as a lover of music unafraid of genre boundaries.
Stream: Coco Bryce – Club Tropicana (Fremdtunes)
Coco Bryce’s Club Tropicana is available now on Fremdtunes.
