"It's dance therapy-- Docta Octa is in, checking yr pulse, charging by the half hour." Octo Octa's therapeutic new EP barely clocks over the 20-minute mark, though in its short amount of time manages to carry four soulful dancehall burners somewhere between careless drug-induced ecstasy, and deep, entrancing du-disco. Let Me See You's gracing cover reveals an explicitly retro haze must be evident amongst these tracks, and while at times it feels like a classy throwback to the sounds of early '90s house, the progression and instrumentation tell an exceedingly different tale.
Octo Octa drops the needle on the title track; an accenting vocal sample and late-'80s hip-hop rhythm greet you as you enter a red-flared club below a sleeping city, before a disco ball drops and an utterly infectious synth line ladders up and down the now booming rump-shaker. Following it is "High Reflection", as a heavy synthesizer hit bleeds into the mix over variously disguised beats and rhythms. The track hits a peak as a vocal cue paints the mix with a lapsing sense of ambience; like liquid pressure. Octo Octa's knob twists deeper on "I'm Trying", keeping the signature vocal delay under carbonized rhythms and curling electronics. This leads to the atmospheric finale, "Coldwaves", waving the mix goodbye with subtle tribal rhythms and lite, airy drones, like the high of a drug encompassing night slowly drifting away.
From the varied sounds displayed on Let Me See You, Octo Octa have a keen ear for balancing atmospheric ambience with contagious danceability. Using this as a starting off point, it will be interesting to hear what Octo Octa will develop into once they put together a full-length of their cloudy, retro-tuned, and velvet-laced interpretation of dance music. Though for now we've got Let Me See You to enjoy until that happens, and whenever it does, they sum it up best themselves; "For the ball drop, the balloon drop, the moments after we're sweat-soaked, covered in glitter, standing in a room full of strangers and lovers and memories all fading into a fog. And the DJ played on. Turning this house into a home."
[Octo Octa Bandcamp]
[Buy Let Me See You from 100% Silk]
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