FLAKO – Kuku
aaamusic | On 20, Feb 2015
Ahead of the release of his new album Natureboy, which comes out this March, London-based producer Flako has released his a maxi-single, ‘Kuku’.
The titular track caters well to fans of fiery trap-styled affairs, featuring the sounds of MIDI vocals and percussion that is somehow as subtle as it is in your face. All over it there are these penetrating synth timbres exerting a mix of exotic and pseudo-grimy vibes.
Things initially build with lengthy tremolo notes which, in sequence, eek out a melody that sets a vivid skeleton for the rest of ‘Kuku’ to work around. Everything plays out in a simple enough way, building up into something of a drop, returning back to a lower plateau and repeating this once over. It’s this approach that comes to define what the whole piece is about.
Flako previously told The Fader about how ‘Kuku’ is “just going mad and transforming … into sounds,” which is an agreeable description. There is a myriad of motifs to be heard here. Flako is more interested in taking a simple idea and musing on it via production and arrangement; the same melody is variated through different sounds rather than transposition or editing. The listen is a fun one and a must for fans of the artist and style, however it may fail to excite those who don’t usually soak up this general genre of production. Having written that, I still have my suspicions that even amongst an unengaged crowd, this one’s a grower.
