'SHOOTING THE GIFT'
(4-track demo)
Three demos into their career, and the beats are sounding better than ever.
Top Croydon duo Rococo may not ring a bell, but hell do they whip ballsy dance-beats, jackknifing spurts of hip-hop, sweet soul and easy-going Jas into the most intoxicating musical melting pot this side of South London - and then some.
When 'underground' bands, solo artists or duos such as Rococo genuinely produce such complex, feel-good music to such high standards it makes me so mad that the Top 40 charts are smattered with utter rubbish. Still, so long as Rococo (AKA Matt and Jas Searles) continue to pump out their demos whenever, wherever and to whoever is interested in their music, I honestly think and hope that it's only a matter of time before they are noticed and their material is respected en-masse for the fantastic thing that it is�
'Shooting The Gift' follows on from where their early 'Old Skool' anthem and their last 'High Rising' demo teasingly left off, with the opening track this time round in 'Feel The Steel' being a bold number, Jas swoonfully introducing the demo by cooing 'This is how it starts again.' The beats and good vibes build, Matt's synths edge in and a good time can't fail to be had by all. Honestly.
I truly adore both the music and Matt & Jas who make the music; it's so original, and there is very little out there right now that's anything like the magical stuff they're producing, all from their flat-bound studio in Croydon itself, a turnpike's throw away from where TV series 'The Bill' is hectically filmed now and again, much to their annoyance.
While their cynically hilarious 'Celebrity' anthem of hip-hop cool is one of their most crowd-friendly sing-a-longs, the haunting chimes of 'Bucharest' reigns proud as the stand-out track by a wispy whisker. From Bucharest's intriguing intro, Jas' tender vocals that soar above Matt's sorrowful piano trickle (that reminds of their heart-breakingly glorious 'Next Life' ballad), and that are lashed by an ocean of backbeats and lushly textured synths, paint a beautifully barren soundscape that incorporates the most sublime moments surely ever to grace pop music. Just you listen hard to the point at which the first bridge slides into earshot, as Jas soothingly reassures: 'I know you want to rise up.' Music has rarely sounded so heavenly or blissful, and I'm convinced that 'Bucharest' will be to Rococo what 'Vienna' was to Electro-pop geniuses Ultravox, i.e. a hugely important and influential piece of music to feel rightly proud of until the cows come home and actually milk themselves.
While Matt and Jas record and produce all the music themselves in their flat, it's not that they're hermits. At every decent opportunity they are gigging in and around London, predominantly in Croydon itself and the further-South suburb of Redhill. As evidenced at such gigs, their lyrically-wicked 'Celebrity' track is a favourite that always goes down well with its boldly funky bass-line and Matt, for the first and not the last time, on lead vocals: vocals that prove to be raspingly intense as the song progresses, the beat getting ever faster - with the listener's palpitations to match - such is Celebrity's exhilarating catchiness.
And for those people who warm just as well to cover songs as they do original material, bully for them because Rococo love to re-hash old classics, with 'Nobody Does It Better' getting a contemporary, ultra-sweet airing on this demo. Jas clearly sounds to have the lung capacity of Mariah Carey, though Jas seems to actually feel and believe in what she is singing to a greater degree than the aforementioned diva.
All tracks, as-ever, are thoughtfully composed and painstakingly recorded. Rococo's unparalleled tracts of feel-good musical blasts, put simply, are A JOY to bear witness to.
You could potentially listen to just one of their tracks over and over and over again for days, weeks and years on end� and still detect a clever back-beat, encrypted sample or layer of synth that you didn't notice the countless number of times before. Once you really listen to their stuff and begin dissecting their songs you come to appreciate them yet more and more.
Rococo, by dictionary definition, is an 'ornate style of 18th Century European music, art or literature.' Well, they're definitely musical, metaphorically artistic in their ways and lovers of 'reading-around' for sure.
Most importantly though, their music is spellbindingly self-styled and in a world of its own.
(Steve Rudd) Rating = 10 out of 10, on a whim and a prayer!
If you'd like to read an interview with Matt, one-half of Rococo, please click here
If you'd like to read a review of their debut gig, do the honours via the link a little to the right... here!
If you'd like to read a review of their 'HIGH RISING' demo, you know what to do (I hope!)
Do the done thing if you please, and go find out more - right now & right here...
www.rococo.me.uk
www.musiccollective.biz