Electrosoul, With a Heartfelt Sweetness

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/arts/music/quadron-at-le-poisson-rouge.html

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That Coco O could sing was not in question. For about a half-hour on Thursday night at Le Poisson Rouge, she’d been slithery, teasing, sensual, ecstatic. The carefree soul songs of Quadron, the duo for which she is the frontwoman, demand all of those things.

Toward the end of the group’s set, the music dropped out, and she began to sing backed only by keyboard. The song was “Pressure,” from Quadron’s self-titled 2009 debut album, and it arrived stark and hard, with Coco O digging deep and opening wide, a moment of arresting church fervor breaking through the placid surface. For a couple of minutes, she remained at that level before the band started back up and turned the song into a big-band soul vamp reminiscent of Amy Winehouse.

The Winehouse moment was a vestige — of the era in which Quadron began, of older ideas about vintage soul revival, of the shadow from which this duo has long since emerged. From Denmark, Quadron is the collaboration of Coco O with the producer Robin Hannibal. Together they make mannered electrosoul that moves in two directions at once.

Musically, it’s full of hard bass thump, soothing keyboards and a hint of brassy ornamentation: it moves with the smooth eroticism of the 1970s, deliciously languorous (though not as much as the music Mr. Hannibal makes with Rhye, another of his recent projects, which verges on somnolent). But Coco O is a singer steeped in 1990s R&B — there are flickers of the early, looser Mary J. Blige in her voice and inflections. She sings with attitude, but not aggression. Even when she’s angry, she comes off as sweet.

That made for a beguiling blend on Quadron’s first album, which could be both coy and heartbeat-deep. (It was rereleased in the United States on the small, influential label Plug Research the following year.) On the heels of that album’s reception, Quadron relocated to Los Angeles to work on “Avalanche” (Vested In Culture/Epic), its equally strong second album, which is set for release in June.

Coco O has lately been in demand: she appears on a song from the new album by Tyler, the Creator, and will be on the soon-to-be-released soundtrack for “The Great Gatsby.” But her best work is still for the home team. The contrast of Mr. Hannibal’s slow, lush production and her nimble, impactful singing makes for a powerful and often surprising match.

At Le Poisson Rouge, performing songs from both albums, she was backed by a band with whom she said she’d been rehearsing for only four days — Jef Villaluna on guitar, Eric King Jr. on keyboards, Thomas Drayton on bass, Rico Nichols on drums — though they were facile enough with the grooves, from the astral, breathy “Day” to the cheeky “Jeans” to the fleet “Hey Love,” the single from the new album. (Mr. Hannibal was there, but not onstage.)

Coco O rarely pushed herself as hard as she did on “Pressure,” preferring to caress. But she was firm and passionate on “Neverland,” a sympathetic number about her idol, Michael Jackson, which was full of little Jacksonisms that she delivered effortlessly. For the encore, she sang a brooding take on Jackson’s “Baby Be Mine,” maybe the least-loved song on “Thriller.” Here, though, it was in capable, loving hands.