Coco Hue: Collab Adoration | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Long time, jazzy key stroker Peta Leigh Wilson has played session-muso and second fiddle in so many other outfits and projects, which is where many of the best musos go: following one of the few viable career paths available to the musically inclined. It’s possible to travel down that work-a-day route and kinda forget why you were playing music in the first place. Wilson, however, did a double-take and said, ‘hey, why not do my own thing for once’.

It’s called Coco Hue and ropes in a large number of the locally, jazzily inclined folks, especially vocalists, and it explains why their record’s called Collab Adoration. The jazz roots are obvious, but, as is often the case with projects of this kind these days, it spills out into soul and r’n’b. There’s a restraint however, which speaks to the slow-burning mood, late at night in the jazz club. Even as the band play it soft and let the singers take the spotlight, it’s less those thrumming vocal-cords and more that feeling of self-control which rules proceedings.

The record kicks off with Picasso Himself, repeating, mantra-like, the titular phrase “Picasso himself was torn / Between his reverence for the art of the past  / And his desire to invent a radically new approach to painting.” Someone recently said that all the music which was future-r’n’b and neo-soul is now just r’n’b and soul and, anyway Coco Hue lean so strongly into their jazz roots I don’t know if the band really experience much ambivalence about which way in time they’re travelling.

One person who’s been around long enough to experience that change I mentioned is guest vocalist Hannah Macklin, whose r’n’b experimentation I’ve long enjoyed. She’s joined on that opening cut by Lachlan Mitchell, who, if I’ve got the right guy, is a musical polymath, a multi-instrumentalist / producer / vocalist, spanning the genre spectrum from pop to indie, all the way out to black metal (really!). Here he’s doing a very serviceable impression of former Brisbane resident Jordan Rakei. Rakei himself favours a jazzy backing-band very similar to the one Wilson has put together. The combination with Mitchell’s smooth, syrupy crooning is just as effective as you’ll hear, later, on the song Victoria. The same can be said of Euan Gray’s contribution on Snakes & Ladders. Kel ‘On Earth’ Timmons makes one of her too-infrequent-these-days appearances on Livin The Life, an appropriately wistful and regretful number about how lives have turned out.

Along with bassist and co-composer Andrew Johnson there’s any number of talented individuals involved in the creation of Collab Adoration and, as such, I feel like everyone could have let it off the leash just a little bit more. I mean, it’s very obvious how competent every contributor is, but I’d prefer slightly less economy and slightly more of the crazy that originally put the ‘future’ into future r’n’b; just letting it all hang out.

After having kept it in check, skilfully playing other people’s music, it’s understandable that Peta Leigh Wilson wouldn’t instantly cut sick as she heads out on her own. I’d like to hear that though. Brisbane, from the likes of Rakei to Laneous can be very good at this sort of music, but we seem a bit short of it right now - I’d like to hear more. Take the slow-burn of the late night jazz club and really let it catch fire.

- Chris Cobcroft.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4095403840/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="http://cocohue.bandcamp.com/album/collab-adoration">Collab Adoration by Coco Hue</a></iframe>