[Aim]

Going into Delta City with no prior knowledge other than that it was the newest release on emergent deep house label Aim, my first thought that was these sounded like somewhat more polite, restrained (read: Aim-esque) takes on raw house a la another suddenly-everywhere Italian outfit The Analogue Cops. Lo and behold, a quick Google search revealed OCP to in fact be another alias for the charismatic duo of Marieu and Lucretio.

It makes sense, really: it’s hard to imagine the distorted thump of “Blue Spring” — or especially its demented, harshly cut vocal sample — coming from anyone else. The duo show new sides to themselves as well, however: “Convoy” is about as lush as they get, sensuously bulging forward with scratchy chords and percolating drums, building delicately towards a climax of sludgy synth lines and harder-pushing drums. “Little More” orients itself around a similarly organic pulse but dresses it up in Italo-esque arpeggios, while the EP is rounded off with “Let Them,” a chunky jam driven by enthusiastic hand percussion and steady hi-hats but weighed down humidly with a downbeat piano. While their characteristically blunt hardware sound is as present as ever, their release as OCP sees them adapting ever so slightly to fit their new Aim cohort, with the lows and the highs smoothed to something almost approaching the deep house the imprint otherwise proffers. Fittingly, it’s just as strong as other releases on the label, a strong ending for the first year of a label that’s proving to be incredibly fruitful.