With a shock of hair that recalls early Dylan, a leather jacket with a portrait of Salvador Dali on the back, a janky department store guitar and SP-303 sampler, Mad Decent’s Bosco Delrey is the perfectly surreal pop beat troubadour for modern America.
Hopeful, absurd, shambolic, catchy, and lean, his songs are great for singing along while tearing your bills and job applications into party confetti!
This funny kid from Memphis via New Jersey (or is it the other way around?) marries the jingle jangle of rockabilly with chunky street beats and samples to stunningly exciting effect.
In a manner that recalls artists like Beck, Santigold, and The The, Bosco has a spectacular ability to play with a spectrum of styles/genres.
Stream “Glow Go the Bones”
Although it’s his first, his new album “Everybody Wah” has a great clarity of vision that is obviously all Bosco while simultaneously sounding like a mixtape from an eclectic friend. “20 Flight Dub” sounds like a lost chill-out tent track by The Orb, whereas “Cool Out” has a spastic drum n bass sample over lyrics about his typewriter songwriting process, and “Afterlife” has a slow-burn samba vibe. But it’s tracks like “Glow Go the Bones” & “Baby’s Got a Blue Flame” where you see his extraordinary pop potential.
Stream “Baby’s Got a Blue Flame”
I’d be remiss if I didn’t come clean and admit that I think “Baby’s Got a Blue Flame” is undoubtedly the catchiest track I’ve heard from a new artist all year. The kid’s got hooks and hooks for days and he’ll make you wanna holler.
Seriously everybody…wah.
He’s about to finish up a month-long tour with Sleigh Bells & CSS and hopefully we’ll all get a chance to catch him in LA again soon.
– Mario Cotto