Among music nerds and aspiring music nerds, »City Pop« typically refers to Japanese pop music from the 1970s that flies the flag for easy listening but is far too much fun to be relegated to mere background noise. Coco Bryce may have named his new album after this genre, but the breakbeat-loving artist from the Dutch city of Breda has put his own unique spin on it.
There’s a reason that last sentence sounds like it’s straight out of a press release: This album is so strong and idiosyncratic that you can’t help but attribute its immense quality primarily to the creative power of its producer. Coco Bryce is unmistakable. This is evident in the pop affinity of »I M 4 U«, which, without a beat, but with perfectly chopped samples and woolly bass lines, takes the wonderful beauty of this long player to the extreme.
Coco Bryce, another hallmark of great producers, makes a lot out of little: »You’re Mine« is carried by perfectly communicating vocals, while the opening track »Slow Motion« shimmers with Burial-esque ether, captured by an earthy, seductively casual jungle beat. It’s probably the drumming that makes this definitive summer album so unique. Multi-layered, brittle, functional, it combines all these attributes—and raises grandiose sound system pop like »Blow Me Over« to a world-class level.
City Pop
