Ossia – Red X
Wading through the deluge of Young Echo affiliated material, Daniel ‘Ossia’ Davies has come a round-about way to his first solo release proper, but at the point of making the Ossia debut on Blackest Ever Black he has laid some strong foundations underneath him. From starting out with the Peng Sound! parties in Bristol through to jointly running the Rwd Fwd cassette-friendly online shop, not to mention co-steering the No Corner and Hotline labels, Davies has shown a dogged determination to uphold un-digital, handmade, DIY ethics in music with an authentic conviction that is palpable in an age of ‘shabby chic’ and other such faux-aged aesthetics.
It’s this true and respectful approach that has seen him join the Young Echo ranks (echoing some of the sentiments that Kahn & Neek spoke of with regards to their steppers work as Gorgon Sound a few years ago) while carving out his own sound as indebted to punk and industrial as it is dub and reggae. He has been heard surfacing in other manifestations, most notably the DJ Oa$is moniker that went up against Vessel’s DJ Ape guise for the first release on their irreverent Fuck Punk label. Now though it feels like a serious artistic statement has been put forward, weighted by consideration, space, message and intent.
The lazy, deathly march of the snare that opens “Red X” feels almost unbearable in its solitude, although it’s not entirely alone. Around that solemn vigil drift unidentified flying dub echoes, equally reveling in the slow, suffocating atmosphere, until a brick wall of silence rears up, only to be broken by the uneasy vocal mantra of Peter Tosh intoning, “the dirt, the filth and corruption”. From here a most sinister version of a steppers track emerges, carried on a chassis of soft hitting live drums that have no interest in flexing modern production pecs.
Rather, it’s the effects processing that shapes out the sheer weight of this track, huge splashes of liquid metal and shattered glass that at one point rip the track in half with a fearless intent, only for Tosh to come back in with his three pronged hook. It feels as though the track can’t pull back from this savage disassembly, but it wearily picks up its pieces and comes back with a tougher groove than it had before. As Tosh’s speech widens out so it becomes a song of protest marching to a skank made of effects decays rather than guitar chops.
“Ice & Blood” kicks off the B-side with a mood that comes on more complex, displaying a more dense array of percussive tones and letting a subtle but very noticeable hum of melodic pad drift in the background, its colour stark in the monochrome surroundings. At times the percussive effects come whirling around in great feats of sound design with naught but a steady ticking rim shot and a wobbling thread of bass for rhythmic guidance. Complementing this audacious trip into sonic surreality, “Blood & Ice Version” follows suit with an even more reduced trip based around drifts of drone and static hum, Tosh still called upon to deliver ever more distant messages of political and social oppression. After the heavy whiplash mid and high frequencies of the other two tracks, this EP finisher feels like a cathartic cleanse, hardly guiding you back to a happy place but atleast offering a kind of bleak peace.
There’s a strong sense of identity coming through from Davies’ work on this EP, channeling some abundantly clear influences but fusing them in an utterly unique way. More than the simple sonics, the use of the Tosh speech has a greater significance in these times, when political music with communicative clout is a very rare thing. No-one needs a message shoved down their throat incessantly, music can be just as much about escapism, but on this EP the more abstract implication from the words contained within is a tone that has value in a time when politics gets ever more twisted and the populace gets ever more ambivalent. That alone would be a great triumph for Ossia on his first outing, let alone the quality of the music.
Oli Warwick
Tracklisting:
A1. Red X
B1. Ice & Blood
B2. Blood & Ice (Version)