Welsh duo
Overmono
established themselves as a vital part of club music long before they released their full-length debut,
Good Lies
, in 2023. Individually, brothers
Ed
and
Tom Russell
had already made a major impact before they began releasing music together in 2016 --
's work as
Tessela
helped reintroduce jungle-influenced breakbeats into U.K. bass music, particularly thanks to the massive success of 2013's "Hackney Parrot," while
Tom
's releases as
Truss
MPIA3
were tightly engineered yet chaotic techno scorchers.
's EPs contained moody, atmospheric experiments as well as left-field club weapons that refracted memories of '90s trance and rave music. Wistful R&B vocal samples and elements of woozy hip-hop became more present in later releases like 2022's
Cash Romantic
, and
continues in this sort of melancholic pop-influenced direction, while also including several surefire floor-fillers. Opener "Feelings Plain" unfolds and layers a few yearning lines ("I thought that we could reason, I needed somebody to believe in") before launching into the dubby garage shuffle of "Arla Fearn," which has some of the deepest, most mind-expanding bass they've ever captured. "Good Lies" also has an addictive bassline along with its crisp snares, pleading vocals, and trancey tension. Downtempo tracks like "Cold Blooded" express a bleary, uneasy feeling as if you're coming home from a night out, still buzzed, trying to retain composure and enjoy yourself, but your mind is a blur from numerous dramatic situations piled up on each other.
's music makes sense out of all of this mental haze, especially on the more straightforward, hook-driven tracks like "Is U" (which seems like a sequel to the previous year's "Gunk") and "So U Kno" (a shortened version of a 2021 B-side that became a sort of pandemic hit, and was named track of the year by Resident Advisor). The voice of
slowthai
pops up beneath the billowing arpeggios and swirling distortion of "Calling Out," one last bittersweet reflection before the morning comes. ~ Paul Simpson