Saturday, August 31, 2024

Oaysis

 


Loft Conversion E.P.  - you got to love it

St Albans massive - part of the Hertfordshire Annex to the Hardcore Continuum (Omni, Source Direct, Photek, Gappa G and Hypa Hypa, Omni Trio, DJ Trax I think, others too)





Not in the first rank of ardkore + jungle - now if they were Omni level, there'd be more polemical strength to the comparison with you-know-who

But this kind of thing = the real Britpop.  I thought that then. Think it now. 

And it was pretty popular, with the populace. Chart music for a good stretch there..














This is Oaysis's first-rank moment 


"I think we've found / A special place...  Just close your eyes / And dream with me"

Better still, the Slipmatt remix


Oaysis started on Formation, up in Leicester, then went to an actual Hertfordshire label - Stevenage's Moving Shadow




One of those groups that tended to go a bit wispy when they shifted from ardkore to intelligent 


One of them  - Danny Hopkins - became Hopa, as in Hopa & Bones - a name that always tickled me.  Although I can see now that it's just a twist on Hopkins. Still, it's an archetypally nuum sort of name, isn't it? Hopa n Bones.



Hopa and Bones featuring Oaysis - a transitional nomenclature. Was this like Hopa saying to the other two in Oaysis - "okay, you can be in the room with us while me and Bones make the tune?" Like letting them down gently, aka not pulling the bandage off.  Maybe they helped, contributed, advis.

Or  maybe it was trying to drag over the "name-recognition" factor into the new enterprise.



Good stuff. Not wispy at all. Glistening and "musical" and cold-fresh-airy, yet the beats are lively and limber, the bass booms in all the right places. 

Danny Hopkins also recorded, earlier, as Higher Octave 



Track called "Raise the Bones"


The other two seem to have dropped out of music.




at

4 comments:

  1. ytSeptember 1, 2024 at 4:26 AM

    I always thought it was a little unfortunate they'd chosen a similar name to "The Microwave Beatles" (think that's a Ron Wells quote).

    There was also a 96 Slipmatt remix in addition to the 93 one you posted which is more stompy, on the Formation happy hardcore sub-label vicious vinyl.

    https://youtu.be/3mtsmi2OQPg?si=BtQv0BSnyiBAij7p

    I think Incredible Bass or Enticer are my favourites!

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  2. SIMON REYNOLDSSeptember 1, 2024 at 2:19 PM

    Well I think they came up with it simultaneously with the band, who were unknown then. Oaysis had releases out a year before the Gallaghers did, their first single was 1993.

    I think it's kind of pukey name in both cases, and worse with the 'y'. It's like a wank intelligent jungle name before that sound existed. Bit like Aquasky but worse!

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  3. ThirdformSeptember 2, 2024 at 9:37 AM

    aquasky strugatsky

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  4. in ateSeptember 12, 2024 at 7:33 AM

    It signified the encroachment of the middle classes into the scene or upward mobility at least, this ep. The scene had once been fine coming "straight from the bedroom" and here it is talking about loft conversions. Two years later it's being played at jazz clubs in Shoreditch!

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