If you lurked in certain corners of the internet this year, you may have encountered Toxe's edit of Slipknot's "Psychosocial," or heard Asmara of Nguzunguzu mixing Korn and Linkin Park with Rihanna and Rae Sremmurd. As dance floor micro-trends go, a nu-metal revival was one of the year's more surprising, but there's a logic to it. These artists want to disrupt hierarchies of taste; now that playing chart R&B in underground clubs is no longer so shocking, they're looking elsewhere for thrills.
The Bath-based Odeko reaches a similar outcome with different methods. The Gobstopper producer's reference points are similar—grime and hip-hop—but his sound is fuzzy and sentimental rather than confrontational. (His The Third Place EP was, he says, the product of a "nostalgic incident.") The tracks he samples aren't shrill, teenage nu-metal, but harder-to-place nuggets from the metalsphere. He reworks them with the sensitivity demonstrated on his recent debut EP, A History With Samus. It's hard to tell what subtle tweaks he might have made to his source material, beyond adding punchy halftime drums and sleek 808 basslines.
But the same question is being asked: how far is too far? The EP goes progressively further. We start on firm ground with "Where's The Point," whose cascading melodies resemble the semi-ambient swoon of Odeko's original tracks. Only the fingerpicked guitar coda brings us somewhere else, but it's a place consistent with the producer's heartfelt mood. From there things get shakier. "Mixed Signals" is a post-rock wash of pastoral guitars, pianos and distant male falsettos. The spooky modal melody in "May I See Darkness, In A Tunnel Ov Light" is more overtly metal, and the drums slapped on top add to the fidgety angst. At the end, "Timmy" throws all caution to the wind. Its unholy fusion of mid-scooped guitar chug and hip-hop percussion is fun but utterly ridiculous.
The Bath-based Odeko reaches a similar outcome with different methods. The Gobstopper producer's reference points are similar—grime and hip-hop—but his sound is fuzzy and sentimental rather than confrontational. (His The Third Place EP was, he says, the product of a "nostalgic incident.") The tracks he samples aren't shrill, teenage nu-metal, but harder-to-place nuggets from the metalsphere. He reworks them with the sensitivity demonstrated on his recent debut EP, A History With Samus. It's hard to tell what subtle tweaks he might have made to his source material, beyond adding punchy halftime drums and sleek 808 basslines.
But the same question is being asked: how far is too far? The EP goes progressively further. We start on firm ground with "Where's The Point," whose cascading melodies resemble the semi-ambient swoon of Odeko's original tracks. Only the fingerpicked guitar coda brings us somewhere else, but it's a place consistent with the producer's heartfelt mood. From there things get shakier. "Mixed Signals" is a post-rock wash of pastoral guitars, pianos and distant male falsettos. The spooky modal melody in "May I See Darkness, In A Tunnel Ov Light" is more overtly metal, and the drums slapped on top add to the fidgety angst. At the end, "Timmy" throws all caution to the wind. Its unholy fusion of mid-scooped guitar chug and hip-hop percussion is fun but utterly ridiculous.
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Published /
Thu / 24 Nov 2016 -
Words /
Angus Finlayson -
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Tracklist /
01. Where's The Point
02. Mixed Signals
03. May I See Darkness, In A Tunnel Ov Light
04. Timmy
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