Otzeki - Now Is A Long Time

  • Clever synth pop with hints of shoegaze and a powerful emotional core.
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  • By the time Otzeki was born, Mike Sharp and Joel Roberts had already been playing together for years. One night, they were about to perform in a Finsbury pub and needed a stage name. They grabbed a book from a shelf, saw "Ostrenski" on a random page and ran with it. After the performance they'd forgotten how to spell it, so they ended up with Otzeki. You might not expect such a stern name to have come from such a silly situation. The same thing applies to their musical output. Listen to their interviews and the two cousins come across as lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek. But press play on Now Is A Long Time, their second album, and you're met with something that has real emotional weight to it, and won't settle for background music. Roberts' knack for creating atmospheric and minimal soundscapes is on full display here. The offbeat grooves on "Sweet Sunshine," or the skeletal opener "So So Shy," are nests of both organic and synthetic percussion that twist and turn in every possible direction. These Burial-inspired breakbeats are densely packed, but never feel excessive. "No Views" powers forward with a robotic stride. Each kick thuds with a persistence that makes you crave the dance floor, but they're mixed down with a human warmth. Otzeki excel at blending different musical styles together. "Unthink" oozes class and infectious melodies. It's a playful but meditative take on '80s power pop. The roaring guitar section on "Used To Wonder" weaves indie rock and fuzzy electronica into a neat, danceable package. The duo complement and contrast each other brilliantly. Sharp's spiralling falsettos are pure shoegaze, while Roberts' luminous synths are more stargaze. It all comes together to make something with a broader sonic range than their last album, Binary Childhood. More often than not, Sharp adopts a shamanistic role on these songs. "Have a singalong to your inner weakness," he says on the album's highlight, "Max Wells-Demon." The midsection soars with a swirling ambience, a brief reprieve in the most high-octane track on the album. Even in his broodier moments, Sharp's vocals stay silky as he sings lines like, "strangest love that you can trust, everything inside of us," on "Familiar Feeling," the album’s emotional core. "Another Son" and "Remember" feature vocal deliveries with enough sensual melancholy to make Thom Yorke comparisons unavoidable. "Peace on earth is so easy to achieve." Sharp croons on "Emotional Retail." He sounds exhausted, and justifiably so. Now Is A Long Time sees Otzeki double down on the warmth that made their debut LP so enjoyable—they're more ambitious with the experimentation this time, and it really pays off. In a time when hope feels like a luxury, Now Is A Long Time has an omniscience that fills you with optimism, even in its darker moments. The duo find a way to make you feel nostalgic for things you haven't experienced, taking moments of anguish and intimacy then playfully moulding them into truly captivating electronic music.
  • Tracklist
      01. Shy Sooo Shy 02. Sweet Sunshine 03. Another Son 04. Max Wells-Demon 05. No Views 06. Unthunk 07. Used to Wonder 08. Familiar Feeling 09. Emotional Retail 10. Leave Yourself Alone 11. Remember 12. Fading Up
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