DJ Olive feat. Honeychild Coleman – Thwis (The Agriculture)

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DJ Olive

It’s been many moons since I last heard from NYC-based electronic producer DJ Olive (real name Gregor Asch), and five years on from his Triage release on Room40, this latest album on The Agriculture Thwis sees the former designer of audio ‘sleeping pills’ offering up a considerably more upbeat and dance-centred collection than you might first expect. It’s also a collection that sees vocals forming the centrepiece on the majority of the twelve tracks here, courtesy of fellow New Yorker Honeychild Coleman. Perhaps the biggest recurring theme here though is dub, with a rootsy swagger lurking just below the surface, even amongst the more downbeat moments here. After opening track ‘Triage Redux’ slowly unfurls things amidst a wash of ambient drones and the muffled chatter of found samples, icy synths slowly emerging around the very edges, instrumental ‘Turn The Tables’ ventures off into the sort of territory you’d associate more with Rhythm & Sound as shuffling broken house rhythms and delay-drenched percussion breaks flit against warm dubby analogue synths in seemingly effortless gliding fashion.

Elsewhere, ‘Your Home’ breaks one of the bigger sweats here, shifting from an opening section of jaunty dubby synth ripples into a flexing rush of streamlined garage-house rhythms and growling sub-bass that calls to mind the likes of Toddla-T given a more laidback ragga twist, as Coleman’s sweet lazy soul vocals add a brighter contrast to some of the more mechanistic elements. Its closing track ‘Refrain’ that arguably best shows off her vocal talents here though, allowing her teasing jazz-soul vocal plenty of space to ring out over a subtle backing of rippling synth-bass arpeggios and stripped down dancehall beats. Perhaps one of the most pleasurable things about Thwis is its sense of continual effortless flow, something that’s no doubt a result of these tracks being repeated refined through live performance before being committed to disc. A more than welcome return.

Chris Downton

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A dastardly man with too much music and too little time on his hands

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