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O$VMV$M O$VMV$M Idle Hands

31.07.15

Jim Jarmusch wasn’t the first but was close to saying it best: ‘Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.’ The culture that fuels our virtuosity is founded upon the art of theft. And this is what O$VMV$M do. This is the debut LP from Young Echo members Sam ‘Neek’ Barrett and Amos ‘Jabu & Zhou’ Childs, under their estranged cut’n’paste, analogue-fondling moniker. Only two months ago, this idiosyncratic Bristol duo had released a No Corner backed EP called Memoryz Of U. It was a practice in sonic splicing; falsifying originality by disassembling samples to their lowest denomination and refashioning them into something wholly different. Now, their eponymous album on Idle Hands consists of brief vignettes of lo-fi synth slurs and esoteric experimentalism.

Sad Grime’s whiney X-Files-themed cooing flutters repeatedly and refrains from reaching any apex. Instead it ambles, echoing itself like the reflection of sound off of a wall. Goodbye the same. No build, but an off-kilter strain of tones filtered to sound totally inhuman. Even Surprise Sisters Devil Mix, which contains audible vocal lines, is steeped in indecipherable oddities: is it actually breathing? These eight momentary audio segments are short but last long enough to question everything you hear. Cold and curious throughout.