AG Cook - Apple

The Guardian 80

(PC Music)
Abrasive techno and acoustic guitars collide on AG Cook’s second album in a month

Last month, the producer AG Cook released his debut album; a 49-track, seven-disc brain dump called 7G. After years honing his synthetic, plastic fantastic strand of pop, released under his divisive PC Music umbrella and expanded via production work for the likes of Charli XCX, Cook threw up some curveballs on his first set. Nestled in among the thundering panic-pop and un-ironic cheese were a clutch of singer-songwritery acoustic sketches including a cover of Blur’s Beetlebum.

That fusion of hyperreality and direct naivety also permeates its 10-track follow-up. So the airy, Ash-referencing, acoustic-led opener Oh Yeah is immediately exploded by Xxoplex, an unholy alliance of pummelling beats, choral chants and pitched vocals. It’s a trick that’s played throughout, with the lo-fi, endearingly cutesy Beautiful Superstar (“you’re beautiful, you’ve got it all”) followed not long after by the abrasive techno instrumental of Airhead.