Today we have a guest recommendation from Tony Fletcher, an author and podcast host, whose tonyfletcher.substack.com covers a wide range of music and other culture.

Today we are listening to the music of Chris Coco, who has been active at the intersection of house, ambient, chill, Balearic, and downtempo electronic music since the heady heyday of Britain’s acid house revolution in the late 1980s. It’s a journey that has taken Chris from the turntables of Brighton’s legendary Zap club to the bars of the Ibizan sunsets; from work as DJ Magazine’s editor to a stint as a Radio 1 co-presenter; and from a brief dalliance with commercial success as part of Coco Steel & Lovebomb to his current weekly radio show Melodica on Soundcloud. Today we are featuring Chris’s latest solo album, Daydream Utopia. Self-described as “atmospheric downtempo electronica,” it is intended as a two-sided dream, one that takes vocalized musical journeys to the Middle East (“Leap Year”) and Japan (“Tokyo Ame”), along with an eight-minute trip to a chilled outer space (“Interstellar”) – all this despite (or because?) it was mostly written and recorded in South London during Covid lockdown. We are also playing Chris Coco’s 2019 solo release, Indigo. Inspired by trips to Japan, Chris set out to turn the country’s strong use of the color Indigo – and the idea of an “Indigo Child” from the Age of Aquarius – to music. Recorded in Tokyo, Ibiza and London, it’s a supremely relaxed desk-friendly counterpart to the travelogue of Daydream Utopia.

Daydream Utopia - Chris Coco (40m, occasional spoken vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Indigo - Chris Coco (40m, essentially no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Have a really nice Thursday.