- Hailing from Honolulu, Hawaii is Japanese vocalist Coppe. Her debut album for Mango Sweet Rice, Nauru, sees Coppe experimenting with the leftfield and abstract side of trip hop beats mixing it all with a distinct Hawaiian influence.
Pakalolo is on an instrumental hip hop tip with beats that pay homage to the experimental stylings of DJ's Krush, Shadow and Vadim with Coppe's whispery voice adding to the dark and moody feel.
Audiolly and Humu Humu Picasso Fish exploring the weird and tripped out sounds of abstract beats similar in vein to works by Autechre and even Quark Kent.
Nauru is not all about downtempo beats, tracks like Sin Coppe Ted and Durango are more on an upbeat tip with Durango sounding close to deep, techy nu-skool breaks with deep and dark basslines taking care of the bottom ends. There's even beatless, ambient tunes like Frozen Fog on a very minimal tip with Coppe mysterious vocals and subtle instrumentation taking control of the wheel.
Warp Records' Plaid offer up a remix for Blue turning it into a slow-mo trip hop affair adding in large dubby drums, jazzy keys and a cheeky synth melody on top. To top it all off they've added a sample which sounds like it's been ripped off a carousel. The other remix of Blue is by Dr. Jacobsen giving it a more laidback appeal letting the beats kick in 2 minutes after the start, allowing the eerie synths to take hold of the reigns at the start.
Finally, Ala Moana combines hollow sounding Hawaiian style percussion to mix with flamenco guitars while Coppe ad libs little snippets of her vocals throughout. Moody yet calm and relaxing at the same time.
Personally I found that Nauru to be an album not crafted for my ears - it's really mellow, abstract and sometimes a little on the weird side - I'd much prefer the downbeat smoky feel of artists like Nightmares On Wax (in his earlier days) with his jazzy hip hop beats compared to the really abstract beats on albums like this. The uptempo tunes are quite nice to listen to though! Nauru is perfect for fans of Warp records and other IDM labels.