- London-based producer A.G. Cook released his prolific debut 7G in August of this year. The two-hour-fourty-minute long project featured discs dedicated to experimenting with different instruments, from guitar, drums to extreme vocals. Not even a week after its release he announced a second record, Apple. Homogenising the best of 7G and his career so far, Apple is an explosive work, one that somehow lives up to its definite hype.
Incorporating a variety of electronic styles, though most prominently the PC Music sound that Cook virtually created as the head of the record label simply called PC Music. Apple is never content with a single sound, employing both hardcore electronic and stripped down pop with equal finesse. Xxxoplex, the record’s second single, features fluttering synthesisers that play a gorgeous birdsong, while oppressive electronics create a threatening wall of sound.
By the following track, the guitar and vocal driven Beautiful Superstar, flickering instruments resemble Half Waif’s The Caretaker from earlier his year. Beautiful Superstar may be less electronic, but Cook still manages to create a borderline shoegazey wall of noise here; it’s a creative spin on his sound. It isn’t long before this oppressive noise returns with Airhead, a track that sonically tears itself apart with its distorted, post-PC opening. This cathartic and often incredibly primal sound morphs with each track on the album. Where Apple should be less cohesive for these twists, they actually work to tie it together.
With so much released material to his name, you’d think that A.G. Cook would be running on fumes by now. In the past few years, he’s executive produced three albums for Charli XCX, one for Hannah Diamond, the upcoming Jonsi album while still finding time to work with Caroline Polachek, 100 Gecs, and countless others. Though Polachek and Diamond contribute vocals for some tracks on Apple, Cook is the real popstar here; embracing the calm and noisy alike.
- Sean Tayler.