- Oshana's debut LP is a transatlantic trip fusing hip-hop and Italo with her groovy house bombs.
- Molly Oshana occupies a unique place in the world of minimal house music. On one hand, she's up there with the best purveyors of endless loops—I mean, can your mnml CV get any more authentic than a Boiler Room: Bucharest appearance and a feature on Raresh's fabric mix? But she's just as comfortable playing tripped-out, bass-heavy weapons with her Yoyaku or Partisan crews at Hoppetosse or CDV (and releasing a few of her own). I'd chalk this comfort down to the fact she's been DJing since she was a tween. Her parents would drive her to birthday parties with her turntables in tow so that she could, as she explained, "play a club set for a bunch of 12 year olds." And now comes her debut LP Disciples Of Dystopia. Oshana splits the difference between old and new minimal worlds, giving us plenty of headsy house while incorporating everything from B-boy spin-backs to Italo nostalgia and a hint of trance euphoria.
There's a touch of brashness to Oshana's music, and the standout moments on Disciples Of Dystopia come when she foregrounds that swagger. The snares on "Mind Over Matter" have enough bite that they could easily find themselves on a Metro Boomin instrumental. And although the title track starts in the ambient ether, it ends up paying tribute to golden era hip-hop with a chunky breakbeat. We also get a tribute to her Midwestern home on "Automated Beats" where she incorporates a ghetto house vocal and some particularly nasty 808s.
The record doesn't disappoint if you're just seeking out new minimal anthems, the kind of songs designed for the dance floors of Europe's after-after-after parties. The coiled, hissing acid line of "Astral Flight" is a textbook example of how to build tension without release, while "Odyssey" has creeping chords you could imagine Binh playing. It's dense to the point of being tactile, the synth line like a skeleton's finger reaching out from the speakers.
There are also a few new tricks on display here. I could've guessed there might be a little Italo given her recent output, but "Embrace The Wave" is her boldest take on the genre to date, equal parts glitz and melancholy. This track makes way for the emotional sucker-punch of "Take Me Away," a team-up with frequent collaborator Anthea that gets pretty damn close to synth pop. And "Labor Of Love" falls somewhere between Low End Theory beat science and the chill-out room, like Flying Lotus on an Artificial Intelligence compilation.
The range on the record isn't a surprise given what Oshana was listening to when writing Disciples Of Dystopia. Walking through her influences, Oshana firms up her underground accolades, listing some low-key Detroit heroes like Detroit Grand Pubahs and overlooked NYC hip-hop via Black Moon—but she also pointed to artists like Sade and Boards of Canada. What's impressive about Disciples Of Dystopia is that Oshana is paying more than lip service to these influences. You can hear all of these artists and more at play on this LP as she refracts her understated house templates through prisms of bold, bright, and emotional dance music from both sides of the Atlantic.
Tracklist01. Disciples Of Dystopia
02. Mind Over Matter
03. Labor Of Love
04. Embrace The Wave
05. Take Me Away feat. Anthea
06. Odyssey
07. Heated Moment
08. Astral Flight
09. Automated Beats