Album: Chris Coco

Next Wave, Distinctive

Chris "Coco" Mellor has been around the club scene for about a decade, as journalist, producer and, more recently, co-presenter of Radio 1's late-night Friday show The Blue Room. As a performer, he's still best known, perhaps, as one-third of Coco Steel and Lovebomb, whose "Feel It" was a turntable hit back in 1992. These days, Coco has chilled out a bit – who hasn't? – and constructs relaxed, downtempo grooves in similar vein to Chicane, albeit less orderly and anthemic; where Chicane leans toward Robert Miles, Coco leans more on The Orb – "My Sunset" could be the baby sister of "Little Fluffy Clouds", with its innocent female narrator eulogising airily about a meteorological phenomenon. The Erik Satie piano figures in "Falling (61)" and "Gemini" give an indication of the moods Coco deals with on Next Wave: elegant and unhurried, sliding gently into understated dub spaces. Like many a house producer, he calls on guest vocalists to bring his pieces to life, though not the voices you might expect. The actor Patrick Bergin and the writer Iain Banks lay spoken recitations over "Only Love" and "Dreaming", while Nick Cave brings cabaret to a warm, glowing version of the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning". Busiest of all, though, is Belle & Sebastian's Monica Queen, oozing sensual languor on "Hazy Lazy" and "All of My Best Friends", but somewhat overwrought on "Before You Broke My Heart".