Ossia

Blackest Ever Black presents Red X, the debut release from Young Echo member Ossia. 10 unyielding minutes of noise-strafed, rootical techno backed with two more abstract, uncanny studies in reverb and delay. One of the Bristol underground’s most vital behind-the-scenes operators, Ossia runs the RWD FWD mail-order and oversees the Peng! Sound, No Corner and Hotline Recordings labels, among others. Though you may have clocked his appearances as DJ Oa$is on FuckPunk, the no-fi dancehall label he runs with Vessel, Red X is his first proper solo offering. The title track was made during the winter of 2014/15, inspired by Peter Tosh’s personal taped diaries: mysterious reel-to-reel recordings in which the reggae star documented his dissatisfaction with city life under Babylonian rule, and his mistrust of certain people around him, in the run-up to his shocking murder in ’87.

Recorded using - among other things - samples, Roland synth, and a rowdy one-take session with the open spring reverb thundering through echo pedals, hard delays and distortion, 'Red X' brilliantly bridges dubwise, isolationist electronics and modern soundsystem dynamics, the stoic half-step of its opening section gradually hewn apart with a ruffneck 4/4 thump, warping sub-bass and a hellfire of high frequencies. Spacious, spry and airy, but with the threat of violence never far way, B1 'Ice & Blood' feels like something picked up on an ebbing pirate signal, with deep blue synths holding fast against stepping razor drum edits. The deep, dread ambience of B2 ’Blood & Ice (Version)’ was coaxed out of an acetate dubplate of ‘Ice & Blood’, and the crackly old 7” run-out groove of Tosh’s ‘Oh Boombaclat’, shot through ’70s Copicat tape-delay and an array of effects. It powerfully evokes the the last breath, or perhaps first gasp, after the rain, after the violence. Peace at last.

Vinyl-only edition of 500 housed in beautiful screen-printed sleeve designed by Studio Tape Echo.