- Powerful experimental club tracks.
- Coucou Chloe's profile has exploded since her 2016 debut EP, Halo, on the Berlin label Creamcake. The French producer started out as part of the so-called post-club scene of young artists experimenting with bass, pop and heavy sampling, often adding elements of hip-hop and industrial rock. In a moment where crews and branding are everything, she took up with early collaborator Sega Bodega (of Crazylegs), oklou and Shygirl to set up the NUXXE collective.
Naughty Dog is Coucou Chloe's second EP on NUXXE, and it's been a long time coming. In the meantime, she contributed to Rihanna's Fenty X Puma runway show in New York, and kept playing plenty of live shows. Naughty Dog seems informed by these gigs, which often feature a fashionably late Coucou Chloe skulking around a sound desk and MCing to her own beats with smoky, indecipherable vocals. Earlier material has often featured a lot of pitch-shifting vocals, but tracks like "Gecko" and "Silver B" layer them with less filtered voices. The new tracks aren't as chaotic and fragmented, either. There's more focus on steady beats, supporting a more sultry groove for Coucou Chloe to purr over. They'll work well live.
"Juicy" most resembles Coucou Chloe's early tracks. It features Shygirl, and has this EP's clearest lyrics, with Shygirl's "I don't give a fuck"s hovering over distortion, wonky synths and a creepy sample of a child laughing. The looping guitar of "Waiting," featuring the Lil Peep producer Lederrick, is another standout. Coucou Chloe's muttered, heavily processed vocals wander within the track's waltzing melody. It reveals a new emotional maturity, as well as an ear for the developing post-club trend towards soft rock and folk sampling.
Tracklist01. Laid-Back
02. Gecko
03. Silver B
04. Juicy feat. Shygirl
05. Waiting feat. Lederrick