Playin’ Me

although she’s been associated with the development of the new uk house and funky sound, cooly g’s productions have always existed in their own hinterland. her music is full of stripped down, tribal post-garage beats graced by dubtracted vocals, incomplete seductions and glimpsed vexations, uttered over empty spaces and lush washes. on ‘playin’ me’ she displays the full spectrum of her sound, plummeting from her sometimes melancholy, sometimes romantic songs through to her more menacing, trackier style. recorded without any frills in her home studio, the album simultaneously recalls a legacy of black british music, filtering the female pressure and reggae lilt of lovers rock’s kitchen sink dramas, the sweet seduction of 80s-flavoured quiet storm soul, through to sour, bitter-sweet synths, and the polyrhythmic dub decay of early jungle and tough tribal drums.