Winter Solstice Soundtrack: “Extant,” By OH/EX/OH

Morning children…

Right now it’s just past 9am, and i can actually feel brain fluid seep from my nose as my joints grind and burn. Damn my broken body today. And to top it all off,.we’re out of bread as well.

So today, the world has not ended, but for many they’ll wish it had, for the Winter Solstice is upon us. The shortest day in the year is like, for many arctic countries, pretty heavy going. It’s total darkness right now outside my window and will likely be that way for the next couple of hours. And will return to that state a few hours later. It’s a time when we bolt our homes, close our curtains and do our best to keep the malevolence of the world at bay.

But this day can be made better with the appropriate soundtrack. And i think i have just the right thing for you all. Earlier this week an electronic package arrived in my inbox from Rob, that lovely man at the wonderfully esoteric label THE GEOGRAPHY TRIP. The package contained his latest release, ‘Extant’ from the enigmatic musician known as OH/EX/OH. I first heard of this guy through the wonderful recommendation of Joseph “The Outer Church” Stannard a few months ago (He would go on to make a fine mix for The Outer Church portal), but he makes these, dense, foggy recordings that always seem to lack a sense of time or location. And so it is with his latest release.

I’ve been listening to it for a few days now and it’s a pretty impressive pieces of music. Layers of granular decay build and disperse with samples that are pulled ripped apart, then put back together again. You can feel a sense of dissipating time and space with a strong hint of isolation and darkness. I would say though that thanks to the samples, there is a definite cinematic feel to ‘Extant.’ This is a world of Tartovsky’s The Zone, Carpenter’s “Prince Of Darkness,” and Herzog’s South American Jungles. As a soundtrack to  The dark void that is the shortest day of the year, this one will take you places you may not want to go to. Best played with the lights turned off….