Koop - Sons of Koop (Colombe D'Or)

Koop will be a new name to most, unless you shop in the Swedish version of the Co-op, from where they take their name. But there are couple of other people who can fill you in on how cool they are. Acid jazz geniuses UFO (United Future Organisation) name-checked the band recently and fellow Swedish fruitcake Stina Nordenstam directed the video for their debut single, 'Glomd'. 'Glomd' has received some well-deserved hype thanks to this and the small-but-perfectly-formed heritage of the Colombe D'Or label. Highly addictive, this track is also praiseworthy for sampling Claude Debussey and mixing 'Prelude A L'Apres-Midi D'un Faune' with dance beats well in advance of Art of Noise's much-heralded (although so far unheard) Debussy-sampling comeback.

The way this album mixes sampled classical string padding and jazz jungle fun makes it sound like the product of a lifetime's - rather than anything shorter - work. Koop have created their own style which varies from classical interludes to 'Army Of Me'-style up-front Bjork-esque meanderings on 'Plasm'. Given the Scandinavian influences, you can expect to hear further Bjork references levelled at the band, but it should be pointed out that tracks on Sons of Koop like 'Bjarne Riis' make 'Hyperballad' sound entirely outdated.

Koop are definitely a new delicacy that needs to be sampled. 9/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine