KOKOROKO – Could We Be More
Creating an overnight hit could easily push an emerging act into rushing a debut album, but KOKOROKO were patient, and the results are rewarding
If the name KOKOROKO sounds familiar to you, chances are you’ve heard Abusey Junction, the band’s contribution to the 2018 Brownswood Recordings compilation of up-and-comers from the London jazz scene. Creating a standout track that took off overnight could easily push an emerging act into rushing a debut album, but KOKOROKO were patient (as we’ve had to be), and the results are rewarding.
Could We Be More is a finely crafted unit that takes KOKOROKO’s span of influences (highlife and afrobeat in the vein of Fela Kuti and Ebo Taylor; a solid education in jazz; the entire city of London) and spins them through a dream machine of sorts. Otherworldly sirens on the opener Tojo give way to astral reverb that ripples across the album – it feels as though ideas and motifs move fluidly throughout the record, such is the power of a coherent album.
In the brass there’s a tendency to begin phrases with short bursts of repetitive refrains, which is a fine pattern if used sparingly, but when relied upon too much starts to feel a bit like a page of writing made up only of four-word sentences. Though not too distracting, we feel the full benefit of the sound when they let rip and intersect one another.
Listen to: Age of Ascent, War Dance, Interlude