Overmono – Diamond Cut / Bby
Image: XL Recordings
It wouldn’t be without reason to say that Overmono have slowly been going back to their roots. This recourse began with the arrival of BMW Track/So U Kno ahead of their fabric presents mix and compilation. The two track release on Poly Kicks saw the UK duo retrace their steps back to their elliptical UK garage sound, the club-ready breakbeats that made them a household name. The latter would go on to arguably become the dance anthem of the year, it being near impossible to exist on a post-pandemic dancefloor without hearing its distinct and infectious helium-pitched vocal sample. Overmono’s timing was impeccable. Letting go of the sort of introspective, saccharine melodic techno that they had been exploring up until that point is easily the greatest move they’ve made, appealing (perhaps unintentionally) to the wave of nostalgia being experienced across the world as clubs reopened and true respite from lockdown fatigue was within reach for the first time.
Diamond Cut / Bby, their new two track outing for XL Recordings, feeds into this unearthed yearning for nights of the past. And this time, they’re going even further. Bby picks up where So U Kno left off, in a sense. Tonally similar, Bby takes up So U Kno’s beat and pushes it further into underground dance territory. The track’s vocal sample is chopped and looped throughout, and Bby slowly breaks itself down into passages of thrumming ambience and glitchy consonants before dropping the bass. Diamond Cut is Overmono at their most skeletal, a track whose basic elements are its most essential; a kicking two-step breakbeat, an instantly hooky vocal bit and an absolutely monstrous bassline that modulates and warps around silvery percussion chimes.
Download Diamond Cut / Bby here
‘Nostalgia’ was first thought to be an illness or disease, defined and caused by an inconsolable longing for the past that can easily be spread. Our present moment feels particularly nostalgic; the reassurance of early 2000’s culture, the embrace of styles thought to be long gone in music. It’s arguable that our time in lockdown has left us homesick for the past, and now that the world slowly finds its footing again it seems the past is where we are collectively looking for direction. Overmono’s course correction back toward the sound of their past feels essential to this current moment. There’s a strange comfort in hearing what we might have expected to hear nearly decade ago today, as we begin to rebuild club culture after what feels like an eternity in hibernation. It’s a reminder of where we’ve come from, but more importantly reminds us that we can get there again.
Listen to Diamond Cut / Bby below.
