Images: Alice Palm & Oli Cole
Eons seem to have passed since the first UKF interview with Coco Bryce. The piece provided a glimpse of a man unafraid to trust his taste. An explorer dead set on defining the mold, rather than fitting the cast. And one that brings convictions to match.
Luckily this hasn’t changed since. The Dutch multi-genre producer/DJ and label owner from Breda pushed onwards. And upwards too, as his productive streak underlines. Nothing shy of two dozen releases were added to his discography in the recent few years.
After his debut at Critical Music with the Hold The Line EP in the fall of ‘20 another EP has arrived on the genre-defining label:
Daktari is a five-tracker EP, released this week. It features a fat sauce of visceral breakbeat goodness from Coco Bryce, plus not one, but two alternative takes by Sam Binga on the track Change Of Heart.
So, what’s the story? And how is the maestro doing? Reasons aplenty to catch up…
You are leaving for the UK prior to this interview. What are your plans?
I will be returning there. Most of my gigs are there now, like during the previous lockdown. It’s a pain with traveling back and forth. Getting to the UK is fairly easy, but when you get back to The Netherlands, there’s a mandatory quarantine.
So, you have a second home in the UK now.
I almost stayed there for the whole December. Which was unplanned, as I was supposed to stay for ten days. I was staying with friends but way longer than planned. The original plan went out the door once I got covid. So, I stayed, even for the NYE. Everything would be closed in The Netherlands anyway.
I am going to the UK this time to play at Fabric, this second time is in the main room. More gigs are planned for the weekends ahead. Going back and forth due to the quarantine isn’t doable, a week only has so many days. Staying is the only real option.
Were you able to compensate for the lack of gigs somewhat by selling records?
Well, nothing to complain about. People suddenly started to buy a lot of vinyl. Folks with jobs and more money to spend, but unable to go clubbing anymore. The whole vinyl manufacturing industry got very busy; everyone wants to press vinyl again. The waiting times are incredibly long due to the lockdown.
It was quite the development at the time. I had tons of gigs planned for 2020. Within a day or two everything got cancelled. I was in London back in March, also planning to stay there for a month or so. Upon return to London after playing Bang Face, all hell broke loose. A very disappointing moment, but then the vinyl sales took off.
Despite this you managed to turn 2020 into the most productive year in the studio.
Yeah. 2021 was productive too, but not that much music came out due to the vinyl pressing queues. Some music got pushed ahead a year or so and is still to be released. Still, I was fortunate to do so many releases. Others weren’t in a similar position and had a tougher time.
Last time we talked, you picked six tracks that had a huge influence on you as a musician. Let’s flip that: what track or EP that you released ever since really stands out for you personally?
As a producer this was a childhood dream coming true. I had the chance to do a whole EP on Kniteforce. A breakbeat/(UK) hardcore label I fell in love with the nineties. Record bags, slipmats, I had to have it. I used to draw their logo on my skateboard.
A while ago the owner approached me for an EP. They went as far as implementing a drawing of me into their logo. It was very much satisfying to see that dream materialize, I have been a fan since starting mixing at the age of sixteen.
You’re often described as a versatile producer. Safe to say a lot of experimenting is at the core of this reputation. What was the driving force in really getting into that process?
Boredom and the unwillingness to keep repeating the same thing. I cannot be working on the same genres’ years on end, that would take the fun out of it. Working on only breakbeat is rather hard too, despite it becoming more the focus.
Thus, meanwhile I been making hip-hop instrumentals, garage and other 140BPM stuff, releasing it with my other alias Chavinski. Another album on Fresh 86 is underway. You won’t find any jungle or other uptempo on there though, only downtempo – hip-hop, 130BPM, half-tempo, steppy and so on.
Let’s talk about your new release on Critical Music: Daktari. It means ‘doctor’ in Swahili, care to explain further?
It relates to a tv-series called Daktari, about a veterinary surgeon in Africa. I started working on this title track many years ago and forgot about it. I revisited it though and this name came to mind, fitting due to the mix of savannas and jungle. It sounded good and I stuck with it.
Which track on the new EP is your favorite and how so?
That would be Dial M for Myor. I was working on an album some years ago, which I’ve rewritten since. I wanted to add this tune since Myor is my label and I wanted to release it there.
Previously I would send over a bunch of tracks to a label so they could pick. I stopped doing this, once I noticed which tracks were often preferred. I decided to be the curator, focusing on three or four tracks that would fit together. Even if that wasn’t the case, it would give an interesting contrast. Now I send these bundles out in the spirit of ‘this is what you get, nothing more, nothing less’.
With Critical it was a bit different, I sent multiple tracks. After checking their roster of artists, I asked Kasra if he knew someone who would be willing to do a remix. It made sense since my style is rather different to others on the label. Sam Binga ended up doing these remixes. I knew him a bit and liked what he was doing. Sam proposed a remix swap, so I remixed one of his tracks as well.
He ended up making two remixes. Initially only one would end up on the record. But I said both were short, roughly three minutes, so both could fit on the vinyl. They agreed.
When revisiting (and reviving) projects on your HDD, what criteria do you apply?
Well, when listening again some tracks or ‘sketches’ have the potential to evolve into a full-length song. Years ago, I would occasionally try this, picking up where I left. It never seemed to work though.
During the first lockdown, somewhere in April ’20, I got multiple requests from labels. Since my last tunes ended up on that first Critical EP, supply was low. I thought: ‘shit, I got nothing’, but then realized I have a lot of time on hands due to the lockdown. I sifted through every project on my hard drive, finishing anything worth doing so. I repeated this and eventually started to work on the title track Daktari.
Quite the streak to breathe new life into unfinished business.
A lot of these tracks were nothing more than ideas. Some were done, but never got rendered for some reason. Perhaps I thought the mixdown was insufficient. I ended up adding an extra breakbeat, changed the melody or just adjusted one thing and suddenly these did sound done.
In some cases, I didn’t even remember making the track, it felt like remixing someone else’s music. As if the point of reference changed and you aren’t so emotionally attached anymore. A very refreshing experience that I purposefully revisit.
Finally, tell us about the artwork – the imagery is abstract but also evocative.
The guy who made this is an old friend of mine called Marwan. He’s also the designer who made the logo for one of my labels; Myor Massiv. The artwork was created with artificial intelligence. He combines different images from the web and uses AI to recreate images. It results in very abstract forms.
I wanted a gloomy atmosphere for this EP, while also having a digital as well as an organic look to it. My previous EP artwork done for Critical Music was by Wencke Nilsson. That one was very colorful, but also with that organic and digital mix. When it comes to artwork, I aim for something more different. A lot of my previous releases have something simple, like a cartoon character. I wanted something else this time, while staying true to the initial release on the label.
Coco Bryce – Daktari is out February 11 on Critical Music
Follow Coco Bryce: Facebook / Soundcloud / Instagram
