Making retro cool again effortlessly

Channelling new romantic 80’s pop alongside modern-day indie pop, Cocoa Futures tread a chilled line with their new EP ‘Recovery’. It’s warm, hazy layers make for easy listening with nods to Peter Gabriel and vocals like Phil Collins.

Opening the EP with ‘Circus’, we have that Gabriel/Collins fusion working in its purest sense. The funky guitars and highly produced layers of synths and sounds work up a relaxed summer vibe. What has always impressed me with Cocoa Futures is the variety of sounds on display, be it vocal pops, weird synths, fun production tricks or just a clever rhythm. This comes to the fore with ‘Sink in the Water’ which is almost void of a proper melody and is all about a repetitive hook that gets to be expanded on and builds up to its euphoric climax. It’s never dull or uninteresting and you can jam along to it however you want. ‘Recovery’ takes the synths to the front of the mix for another anthemic kitchen sink approach. Think St Vincent but cleaner and retro-cool. The big sound machine style of production dominates the final two tracks ‘I Can Be 18’ and ‘Big Time’. The sheen of the electric guitar, the thickness of the bass, the slushy synths – it’s so clear and bright that it picks you up even though these are the slower tracks on the EP.

Cocoa Futures is the hark back to all the things that were good about 80’s production, 80’s artistic new romantics era and adds in a little modern day trickery and synth work. This EP makes retro sound cool again without even trying and that’s the point.

Recommended track: Recovery

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