You Should Check Out Cosmo Pyke
Cosmo Pyke has a lot more to offer than an esoteric and fun name. Cosmo Pyke is a young artist from south London making some of the most interesting music in the indie-pop scene. He’s already made some waves having been featured in an article by the Gaurdian and in a Frank Ocean video but even still I rarely hear much talk about him.
Glittery, psychedelic, cosmic R&B is perhaps the best way you can describe his work. Through an ear catching blend of hip-hop, R&B, dream pop, psychedelic and even reggae Cosmo Pyke creates rich textures that blend diverse sounds in a way that’s totally unique but also still neatly fits into the indie-pop camp. His low, lightly compressed vocals float above jazzy synth harmonies, reggae rhythm guitars, glittery lead guitar riffs and a diverse set of percussion to construct a soundscape that just begs you to lean in and listen closer. While clearly borrowing the aesthetic of lo-fi hip-hop he shocks a lot more life into it. Traditionally lo-fi hip-hop is an inoffensive and somewhat ignorable genre which often exists just to be background music, but Cosmo Pyke mixes its aesthetic with actually interesting music genres and gives birth to something really fun.
Chronic Sunshine would be my recommendation of a first song to listen to by him. His EP Just Cosmo though is a set of 5 great songs but… it leaves something to be wanted. I think specifically with Chronic Sunshine Pyke hits it out of the park. That song to me is one of my favorite tracks that I heard in 2019. I think it perfectly nails his aesthetic of gliterry, cosmic R&B — the rest of the EP? Not as much. While I still enjoy every single track on it they don’t all seem to feel as flush and well-constructed as Chronic Sunshine or Social Cites (in my opinion the second best track on the EP). The other three songs seem to just strike me as B-sides. Not that there is something specifically wrong with them, but the songs just don’t seem to land as well. Something which I imagine is just a sign of a young artist with a unique sound still trying to master his own style.
Whatever the case may be, Just Cosmo is a great debut EP and Cosmo Pyke is an artist I expect big things from as he hones his craft further and continues to deliver truly unique music.
