The UK sets a high bar for new electronic acts. Hot on the heels of Bicep are another duo armed with a sense of rave nostalgia, an array of samples and nimble, fat-free productions. Brothers Tom and Ed Russell grew up in rural south Wales, hosting splendidly isolated micro-raves in woods and quarries (the duo take their band name from Overmonnow, a Monmouth suburb; amusingly, their forenames also echo the Chemical Brothers’).
Unlike Bicep, though, Overmono aren’t techno revivalists, but partial to old school syncopations: they fillet jungle, two-step and trap for beats, R&B and hip-hop for sped-up vocals, and then impose flirtation, dread or weapons-grade nostalgia on the results. Consequently, they are shaping up to be an albums act rather than just savvy dancefloor engineers. This is an album full of emotional ambushes.
