Available on: Tri Angle EP

This six-track debut EP from San Francisco’s teasingly named oOoOO shimmies along a fine path between ethereal US indie pop, cold wave electro and ‘…Do it Better’ Italo disco revivalism, a path that somehow also points towards the latest in down-tempo London bass music. Lead track ‘Burnout Eyess’ is available in two flavours: gothic pastoral crunk, or a distressed r’n’b take courtesy of a remix by fellow travellers Visions of Trees.

‘Plains is Hot’ sounds like the music the dead of Dead Can Dance would dance to – if they were in the early ‘80s West Coast clubs frequented by ‘Julie’ Kay from American Gigolo. The cocaine-meets-witchcraft vibe and slowly building intensity put me in mind of Sarah McLachlan’s collaborations with William Orbit and the Junior Boys, although this singer’s voice is much weaker – in a good way – than the McLachlans of this world.

This weakness is best showcased on ‘Hearts’, a potent love song that takes the melancholy disco of a band such as Desire and mixes it with the vague menace of Burial. oOoOO has already been lumped into the unfortunately named “drag” genre, and nothing sounds draggier than this: a slow, sparse, finger-snapping groove, yearning vocals and synths that wobble like the bass normally would. Sumptuous.

‘Sedsumting’ moves into darker territory, a night drive full of endlessly refracted vocals, bass like sludge and sinister looped wah-wah guitar; it eventually resolves into some kind of dancefloor funeral march, deathly slow, its refrain repeated just beyond the point of pleasurability. The only weak moment on this EP is its opener, the sitar-drenched ‘Mumbai’, which tries to bridge the gap between ambient drone and snare-drenched electro-funk, but only succeeds in falling into a chasm of indifference: neither going anywhere in particular, nor going nowhere in particular – a slight end to an otherwise engaging release.

Justin Toland