CHRIS COCO – HEAVY MELLOW (DISTINCTIVE RECORDS)
May 13th, 2005 by soyo
DJ, late 80s raver, producer and presenter of Radio 1′s the blue room, Chris Coco needs no introduction. (If you need one go to his website after reading this!) His second solo album “Heavy Mellow” follows up his acclaimed “Next Wave” lp.
As the title suggests, Heavy Mellow is a journey into a mellow warm place and wallows hippo-like in thick luxurious downtempo mud. All of the classic elements are there : washes and waves of sunny synths; ethnic voices; spoken word; spanish guitars; dreamy ivory twinkles and sweet female vocals.
Opening trackettes “Outside Broadcast” and “Searching for the Balearic Heartbeat” guide the listener into the first proper track “Time to Love”. This is a beautiful sentiment, executed in an equally beautiful manner, a timely message for all of the current intolerance in the world maybe?
The title track builds layer upon layer of synth pads which then drop into a simple chord pattern on the piano overlayed with male vocals singing of lost love. “Drifting” is a deceptivly simple and cute tune with a catchy little chord changing melody, a pulsing b-line and a nice duet between a moog sounding synth and a rhodes that puts you in mind of er…well.. drifiting I suppose! “Memory of a Free Party” dares to get up beat and has the classic drug addled spoken word bit – some hippyish sounding bloke talking about how acid enhances his appreciation of both the music and someones patterned shirt. He also goes on about some raver dancing with torches in each hand and how it reminds him of a light sabre wielding Darth Vader – a bit cliched maybe, but Chris Coco uses the ramblings to great smiley effect.
Rokka gets you back into that warm place again with a melancholic brassy sound complemented by some hushed female vocals. The melancholy continues through “Dreaming of Shibuya in the Rain Again” and into “Sad Song”, the latter featuring the song of the blackbird (many a weary clubbers companion on the walk home after a night of partying). “Just Another Steamy Afternoon in the Suburbs” left me wondering which suburbs exactly? As there are the sounds of “Apocalypse Now” type chopper blades, spoken word, tablas and squelchy bass.
Finishing the album, “Summer Love” is a lush string schmooze on a vaguely lounge tip and leaves you aching to get the sun on your bones whilst being horizontal in a field of dreams somewhere.
All in all “Heavy Mellow” is a really well done chill out album that avoids the current vogue for proper songs (and covers!) It has a distinctly accessible and familiar feel to it yet is fresh enough with plenty of depth, emotion and textures to keep you hooked from start to finish. Brilliant!, now make me some space on that bean bag
Oh and did I mention it comes with a DVD containing films to go with 8 of the tracks!
Soyo
Out May 16th
www.chriscoco.com
www.distinctiverecords.com
