Cole Lyoko

Cole Lyoko's musical journey began in the summer of 1989, where he worked days as an intern in a research laboratory but spent nearly every night watching incredible local and touring acts in blues and rock clubs. Already a committed music fan, he was so inspired by the live music scene that he returned to college that fall with the determination and savings to buy his first guitar. Within days of the purchase, he had joined a student band. It grew. Rocking packed fraternity parties and college gigs evolved into years on the east coast rock club circuit, where Lyoko played guitar with several critically acclaimed bands, including Boston hardcore standout Plaster of Paris, Texas.

After moving to Los Angeles in the early 2000s, Lyoko recorded a series of independent releases as Politics, produced on a laptop using obscure stitched-together drum loops and samples alongside his own live guitars, bass and vocals. This period introduced his distinctive rhyming delivery and compositional style while pushing the boundaries of his own DIY recording at the time.

Lyoko relocated to Philadelphia, where he continued experimenting with sample manipulation and mashup songcraft. In 2024, he began feeding his own musical ideas into emerging AI systems, searching through variations for unexpected riffs, rhythms and melodic fragments. These discoveries became the raw material for compositions assembled through painstaking editing, layering, performance and mixing.

The result, Proper Propaganda (October 2026), delivers seven tracks driven by grinding grooves, unconventional arrangements and unapologetic lyrics. Each song is assembled from hundreds of individual loops, samples and clips with very little live playing. Lyoko performed and recorded the vocals and intentionally wrote the lyrics with positive energy, encouraging confidence, pride, resilience and understanding.

Taking his artist name from an old nickname inspired by the animated series Code Lyoko, Lyoko considers the album his most technical work to date and a continuation of the creative curiosity that began more than three decades ago.

Proper Propaganda

Proper Propaganda

Cole Lyoko

Proper Propaganda combines bluesy guitar anthems, old-school hip-hop cadence and studio collage into seven hard-to-classify, genre-bending tracks. The collection feels fresh, lo-fi, immediate and strangely unnatural, offering a compelling case for a new era of unapologetic, algo-wired music.

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  1. 1
    Apex 4:20
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  2. 2
    Depreciation 2:55
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  3. 3
    Made Right 4:20
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  4. 4
    Moonshot 3:40
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  5. 5
    Off Your Chest 2:00
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  6. 6
    Happy Unplugged 4:20
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  7. 7
    Peace Jam 4:20
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PRESS KIT

Press Kit Official Cole Lyoko press kit (PDF) 1.59 MB
Album Artwork Official Proper Propaganda album cover, (3000 × 3000 PNG) 12.5 MB
Artist Image Official Cole Lyoko publicity portrait, (2000 × 2500 PNG) 6.54 MB
Banner Image Official Cole Lyoko promotional banner, (2400 × 1350 PNG) 1.81 MB

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