oOoOO (meant to be pronounced Oh) is the chillwave project of San Francisco based artist Chris Dexter Greenspan. Naming influences such as Jana Hunter (Lower Dens), his electronic music ranges between dubstep, witch house and dark wave. Following his self-titled debut EP brought out in 2010, his current EP ‘Our Love Is Hurting Us’ was released on April 30, 2012 via TriAngle Records. Greenspan confirmed plans of working on an album. Considering the fine quality of all five tracks, that’s definitely something to look forward to! Listen below to NoWayBack, the second EP track featuring Butterclock.

Cover Art:

Tracklist:
01. TryTry
02. Springs (feat Butterclock)
03. Starr
04. Break Yr Heartt
05. NoWayBack (feat. Butterclock)

Follow ‘oOoOO’ on:
Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/oOoOOsounds
Twitter at: http://twitter.com/ooooosounds
Soundcloud at: http://soundcloud.com/ooooosounds

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Consequence Of Sound – oOoOO: Our Love Is Hurting Us

Our Loving Is Hurting Us starts off with a strong element of ambient and a timid drum pattern tracing behind. This sound lays the fundament of the whole EP. As TryTry advances, it reminds somewhat of a brighter version of Burial due to the use of echoes and subtle vocals as it nears the end. Springs follows, featuring Greenspan’s partner in crime Butterglock. In her first appearance her vocals are central on a background of dreamy synths and occasional drums. The overall performance would let it fit right in with the soundtrack of a movie like Virgin Suicides. Starr is the third in line. Its ghost vocals accompany the more upbeat flow of the EP. The track is filled with brief beats and sounds, making it more intricate. This reaches zenith with a guitar sample grazing and culminating Starr.
Break Yr Heart embraces the chillwave elements most clearly due to the use of percussion elements and the dreamy atmosphere. The vocals, ethereal and honest, make it the most fragile of the EP. This too has a hint of Burial, yet it never sounds like Greenspan is being a copycat. NoWayBack is the final track. It has already been compared with NoSummer4u when the track first surfaced along with the news of the new EP. NoWayBack is the track which combines the elements best. Butterclock’s voice plays a key role as it is like a silk sword, cutting through the sound without being overly present. It makes for an excellent closer.

oOoOO has changed his sound, but not his watermark. Regardless of the light shining through his work, Greenspan doesn’t defy his style choices. Butterclock‘s influence allows the EP to excel. In other words Our Loving Is Hurting Us has five great tracks and proves to be another classic.

Our Loving Is Hurting Us can be streamed via Spotify and XLR8R or listen to NoWayBack below:

oOoOO is a west coast producer making dreamy and chillwave esque tracks… his new EP, entitled Our Love Is Hurting Us, did not disappoint me, but instead increased my respect for his music. This track is my favourite off of the EP… enjoy!

Break Yr Heartt:

Two years after his well acclaimed self-titled debut, oOoOO has graced us once again with a new EP, Our Love Is Hurting Us.

I spoke in the Lake Radio review last month of the new and interesting directions that witch-house artists were taking the genre. Perhaps I spoke too soon; oOoOO feels like he’s stuck in 2010 still, and has made little to no effort to try and diversify his sound in the two years he’s been away.

Does that mean this is a bad record? Not really, especially for oOoOO fans. Production quality has certainly been improved, moving away from the distorted and lo-fi sounds of his previous; one thing that did annoy me about oOoOO was the clipping on the bass kicks, it spoiled everything. I’m glad he abandoned that.

“TryTry” opens out nicely into huge, slow moving bass as delicate synths coil away in the background and clipped, fragmented helium vocals stutter in and out. It’s a classic witch-house track, and that in itself is not a problem, it’s just that everything that follows is as well.

The tracks with Butterclock (“Springs”, “NoWayBack”) you’d think would show a bit more diversity but no, they are exactly the same. Well, they’re not, but everything sounds so sonically similar they may as well be; everything here just blends into one amorphous mass of bass and choppy vocals.

“Starr” is perhaps one of the most left-field tracks here; while it is still rooted in witch-house/drag with its glacial bass beats and vocoder vocals, it actually brings in electric guitar into the mix (shock horror!). I’ve heard lots of complaints in regards to this incorporation from avid fans, but I actually think it’s pulled off really well. Shame that there isn’t more of it, and that it only feels like an spur of the moment inclusion.

The problem is, as I’ve said, nothing has changed. Two years, 20 minutes of new content and almost nothing to show for it at all. The beats are the same, the song structures are mostly unchanged; this would have been great when oOoOO was riding the popularity wave in 2010, but that’s not the sound we want anymore.

Just so, so average.

5/10

(Not a particularly serious/in-depth review by any means, but w/e)

New track just released by San Fran producer Chris Greenspan.  I posted a song by oOoOO earlier; you can find that here.  But definitely check out the song above and grab a free download.  He has a new EP “Our Love Is Hurting Us” that is set to drop April 30th; should be really good.

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