- Skewed downtempo from a key figure in Russia's leftfield scene.
- Even within the context of downtempo, trip-hop and illbient, studio genres whose crawling tempos and dubbed-out atmospherics were the result of entering the studio as stoned as possible, OL's SORM feels remarkably weird. But that's the way Oleg Buyanov's career has gone. He started out making house music, now he's a central figure within Russia's burgeoning leftfield scene. On SORM, he pursues a combination of ambient and corroded downtempo beats for some imaginary, outer-limits chill out room.
The opener, "Block24," bridges two ominous, heavy riddims with liminal ambience and far-off voices. "Skepsys," Blacksiris," and "Trail Dub," meanwhile, are disembodied digidub killers. Sampling is an intriguing facet of Buyanov's graft. "Cicadaskit" is an abstract IDM duet with locusts. "Sideline" is the one everyone will talk about thanks thanks to its "Sicko Mode" sample. On OL's reimagining, Swae Lee's epochal sing-song—"Someone said, someone said"—rings out over a foreboding landscape.
TracklistA1 Block24
A2 Skepsys
A3 Morph 16+
A4 Cicadaskit
B1 Blacksiris
B2 Trial Dub
B3 Sideline