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OCOSI, "GUIDED"; HORCHATA/OCOSI; NOS, "NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED"
Do you think Mick Harris, aka Scorn, ever regrets supporting all theguys that try to make music that sounds a hell of a lot like his? The'dark hop' category - beats, bass and deep ambient atmospheres - isfull of imitators and occasional innovators. Here's three more discs toadd to the pile.
Ocosi is Paul Molyneux with former member Simon Smerdon (aka Mothboy)also present on the title track of this limited edition of 100 CD-Rsfrom Manifold. Divided up into 7 tracks totaling 44 minutes, "Guided"is exactly how I like this sort of music: gritty, dark and aggressive.The beats are raw, the bass is booming, the drift is eerie, the pace isslow and everything just jells the way it should. Though the rhythmsare like locked grooves there are occasional staggers, change ups andbreaks to help keep it all interesting. Except maybe "Go Away" whichlanguishes in a cymbal like loop. The tense, near 15 minute finale "AtEnds" is perhaps the most intriguing, strangely enough considering it'ssimply a slowly revolving industrial soundscape devoid of beats.
For this 62-minute disc, Ocosi team up with 'dark ambient soundscape'artist Horchata (Mike Palace) and leave the production up to him for acleaner, more digital take on the sound. And, ultimately, a much morelaid back and boring sound. The 11 tracks are comprised of the usualbeats, bass and backing recipe, but are really lacking in grit and thusflavor. The sounds are pretty dull, the programming rather drab and theatmospheres more faint than they are dark. And 3 tracks are far toolong at 7 to 9 minutes apiece. In this batch "Transfiguration" is likethe cookie that somehow got all of the chocolate chips. It hasglimmering metallic bells, a funky groove, a pretty melody viaHorchata's own arp-01 midi file generating software and impressiveinterplay between bass/beats and backdrop. At least I can savor thatone. A second volume of Horchata / Ocosi is planned, also via Zero 1Media.
NOS is Swiss duo Giuseppe Di Benedetto and Jean-Claude Codoni and thisis their self titled debut for Economy Records, a sub division ofManifold. Nine tracks make up 53 minutes of murkiness. And I don't meanthat as a compliment. The mix is awful. Every sound is consumed by abass heavy, atmospheric gunk. That, combined with the wimpy anddownright dull rhythm programming, makes for music with very littleedge. "Unknown" starts off promising but doesn't know where to go fromthere. "Ultimatum" tries to get nasty but ends up being a big mess ofpercussion. Yuck. Forget this one. -
- Ocosi - Scrape
- Horchata/Ocosi - Transfiguration
- Nos - Unknown
