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The Austin 100: KOKOROKO

KOKOROKO.
Lillian Liu
/
Courtesy of the artist
KOKOROKO.

Hometown: London, England

Genre: Jazz

Why We're Excited: KOKOROKO's "Abusey Junction" first found a worldwide audience thanks to its placement on a high-profile compilation of London jazz called We Out Here; from there, the languid Afrobeat tune has been streamed tens of millions of times. What leaps out about the song's viral success is that the song... well, doesn't leap out. Instead, it wanders and glides with hypnotic thoughtfulness, fueled by Oscar Jerome's conversational guitar solos and soft sweeps of brass.

Listen to Kokoroko's "Abusey Junction"

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music and Pop Culture Happy Hour. He appears frequently on All Songs Considered and NPR newsmagazines.

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