O YUKI CONJUGATE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Nottingham duo O Uki Conjugate have been delivering their own particular brand of "dirty ambient" (as they put it) since way back in 1982. They're in a more immersive mood in the Artefacts EP, which brings together a quartet of alternately foreboding and intoxicating compositions that perfectly capture the ongoing dread of the last 12 months. Lengthy A-side suite 'Forgotten Summer II/Endless Heat' re-frames and repurposes a 2019 album track co-produced by Colin Potter, with the duo wrapping fluctuating, pulsing electronic motifs, dense chords and glistening guitar textures around an ever-evolving, hypnotic groove. Over on the flip you'll find 'Empire', a distant dark ambient chugger that's hallucinatory in tone, and the twisted textures and creeping k-hole chords of 'Debauchery'.