Where the vodka and blood flows all night

oOoOO – oOoOO EP

You can say that “labels are for jars,” and I would much rather just talk about the music than lump it into categories, but sometimes you just have to generalize. So there's that whole chillwave phase what with Toro y Moi, Washed Out, Memory Tapes, and others spearheading the quite literally “chill,” dreamy, slow lo-fi that's perfect as a blissful soundtrack to high times at the beach. But with Toro y Moi's new album spearheading a new direction into the forays of live-instrumentation and funk, it seems to have lost some of the luster that made it so fashionable last year. Pitchfork probably would call it “dead.” But it's not dead, it's a genre, and even though I dig chillwave, I'm gonna talk a little bit about it's cousin. Maybe it's more of an evil twin, but either way it's being dubbed the inane name of “witch house.” It's the dark side of chillwave; super-slowed down electronic with drippy synths, a notable dirty Southern rap accent, and a load of weird, creepy sounds that just have to have been sampled from horror films. The big guns here are Salem, Balam Acab, and oOoOO (props to anyone who can think of another band/artist's name that's longer than “xx” and consists of only one letter). There's also this bro who goes by the symbol of a triangle. With two crosses on either side. Or something. Anyway, I got kinda turned off by Salem because their live show is so mind-numbingly awful so I proclaim this oOoOO thing king of “witch house,” as much as it pains me to use those two words. I recommend taking in his oOoOO EP as a whole, but if you're not gonna download it, at least listen to “Hearts,” which is oOoOO at his best. It bridges contemporary hip hop with its share of snaps and claps, and drugged out, depressing electro-goth. A forlorn, fairly monotone female voice gives it some personality, sounding as if this is the last song she'll ever sing, and it gets a little funky with a bassline that's a departure from his other stuff, but it's still otherwordly with synths that dizzily twist and turn and writhe around your head as you get transported to some unknown place in the dark of the night. Call it a party song for the apocalypse, where you chill with people that look like that thing on the EP cover. I shouldn't quote YouTube, but after reading this comment under the “Hearts” clip I just felt compelled: "this song is so fucking good i'm hosting a halloween party this year where all we do is cocaine and listen to this song on repeat and what's the spookiest booze..? VODKA AND BLOOD. you're all invited." oOoOO, look what you've done to these people. Now where's my invitation?

-K.ZILLA

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