May 11, 2001
Koffee Brown : The After Party
'80s-inspired soulfulness from new r&b duo Koffee Brown...
There has been no attempt to disguise the fact that this, the debut single from r&b duo Koffee Brown, has been inspired by the '80s. But unlike the gauche fashions currently being peddled as a 'return to the decade taste forget' (Legwarmers. With heels? Get tha fuck outta here!), this material gets the current take on yester-year just right. It manages to be both modern and retrospective.
How have they managed that? Well, when you understand that you can be both r&b-based but acutely soulful (which is how they did it in the '80s - from Rene & Angela through to Change and BB&Q) this thang called music becomes simple. For those not alive at the time, this is how they did it twenty years ago. Before P Diddy came along with the boom bap.
Evenly paced, and okay, yes, somewhat anonymously sung, Koffee aren't talking about the after party Jodeci hinted at on their final (?) album, 'The Show, The After Party, The Hotel'. This song testifies to an after party where people are jamming at simply for the grooves, the moves, the vibe, not the freak's in the place or the Cristal. Once you've got a grasp on that, the simplistic beauty of this mid-tempo cut is inescapable.
soul mama
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