Live Review: Koi Child, ESESE

The Eastern Seaboard Electric Soul Experience (aka ESESE) perform soulful, jazzed-out hip hop like no other. The Laneway Festival Unearthed winners juggle flows that mimic a REMI/Roots Manuva prowess, while the eight--piece band decorate your audible landscape with a sound that echoes Fat Freddy's Drop. MC Hancoq has a carefree style, an effortless string of alphabet soup that won't make you spill your gin and juice (his favourite drink). Co-founder Hudson James Jr belts out catchy choruses that make crowds sway and nod their heads; an unrivalled sound in Australian hip hop. Guest spots from Baro and Cazeaux OSLO (Man Made Mountain) create an energy that has us jumping for the main meal: enter Koi Child.

In Australian hip hop, it is rare to find a jazz contingent blending a soulful horn section that can hold its own. Nu-jazz quartet Kashikoi marries three-piece hip hop crew Child's Play to become Koi Child, thus creating a speakeasy vibe on debut single Slow One. Not a minute later however you're untangling quickfire lyrics from recently released single Black Panda. Koi Child manage to keep you guessing while your body struggles to escape their soulful rhythms; they are an imaginative take on which rules can be broken in stoner-rock-soaked hip hop.

The swagger behind Koi Child's creativity demonstrates the natural talent frontman Shannon Patterson spits in tight bars. Gentle keys, crystal-clear drums and a punchy sax create a bed in which these lyrics certainly do not sleep. Koi Child are not afraid of experimental flows, they are no stranger to reverb or delay and somehow manage to deliver an atmosphere of jazz-wedded hip hop.

The Perth-born collective promise big things through rhyme — "I took school with mostly joke approaches/My rule book was ruled out for rolling roaches.." — however, a joke the crew they are not, with their self-titled album mixed and produced by ARIA award-winning Kevin Parker (Tame Impala). Think old-skool The Pharcyde meets The Roots live. Koi Child offer a tightly woven tapestry of live musicianship with an upbeat attitude that promises big things in the group's career. They are a group that can't be ignored. Lie down, get up — it doesn't matter! Get groovy to the tunes of Koi Child.