O. - Slice

Giving listeners a brief taste of their boundary-pushing creativity, on ‘Slice’ O. demonstrate just how much can be done with a pair of drumsticks, a baritone sax, and some significant pedal wizardry. Borrowing their structural dynamics from dance, the EP’s title track builds at an exponential rate, heightening anticipation for a drop that’s as seamless as it is satisfying. ‘Moon’, meanwhile, is an altogether moodier affair - all reverb and sultry sax lines, it finds the duo tracing the musical lineage of their acoustic drum and bass further back, wearing their dub influences like a well-fitting rudeboy suit. An aptly-named cut in which the synergy between sonics and moniker is apparent, it’s almost hard to believe there’s not a guitar in the mix with ‘Grouchy’, such is its shoegaze-adjacent wall of sound. Rounding off proceedings is ‘ATM’, bringing us back into the realm of frantic pacing and club-like beats in a pleasingly cyclical move that marks O.’s debut EP as a project that’s short but sweet, cohesive and well-rounded - much like the band name itself.