Choke Enough – Vinyl LP

Oklou – “choke enough” [LP] choke enough, the full-length studio debut from French artist Oklou, is a patient, masterful execution of ephemeral soft club electronic and texturally alluring indie pop. Features Bladee, underscores, with production from Danny L Harle, A. G. Cook, Nick Len, and more. Her critically acclaimed mixtape, Galore, led her on tours with Caroline Polachek, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Sampha, before being coined “a taste of the future of pop music” by NME. Virgin Music Group; True Panther Records; Pop.

“choke enough is a very intense album for me. Its filled with directions, tentativesand irregularities, reflecting my last years on this planet as my heart and consciencehas really decentered from myself, says Marylou Mayniel, aka Oklou.”Each song calls for a different path, trying to guess which one to follow.Probably as some sort of quest for sense and purpose, in these times where theobsession with self development and self achievement is something I relate withless and less”.

After establishing herself as one of the most promising artists of her generation,collaborating with names like Mura Masa, Pomme and Flavien Berger, and remixingstars including Dua Lipa and Angle (Fever), Caroline Polachek (Door) and A.G.Cook (Being Harsh), the French artist took the time to reflect on both her career andher desires, and the result is choke enough.The album maps an emotional landscape. Warm, beautiful productions that are thesignature of the Oklou style are throughout; pairing ambient sounds with minimalclub rhythms, delicate synthesizer arpeggios and found sound samples. Thealbums title track, choke enough, is an embodiment of the projects quest formeaning, of the need to be touched by anything; a grandiose epiphany or a passingquotidien moment.

Its the first song of the project, explains Mayniel. I remember listening to it in mycar in Los Angeles on one of those immense roads that goes around the city. Iparked in a slightly dark corner, a sort of vacant lot, and the words came suddenly,like a surge. A need to tell my story of my pursuit of intense emotions.

This relationship with elusive, imperceptible, ephemeral emotions is the key to thealbum. It is a reflection on the subconscious and conscious demands of an artisticpsychology, and on the demands of existing and creating in a brief and transientlife.