Photo by Jamie MacMillan

Artist: O., the duo of baritone saxophonist Joseph Henwood and drummer Tash Keary

Location: London, England

Buzz: Of the few positives from those years in lockdown, it has given this world some weird, acerbic art for the better. O., the London-based duo of baritone saxophonist Joseph Henwood and drummer Tash Keary, are a product of those times in forming a very chaotic style of experimental noise-jazz from their isolation bubble, jamming brass and percussion that barrel energy into all commotions in a circular semblance. The band made an immediate first impact a year ago with the release of their first single, “OGO”, for the unboxable London label of producer Dan Carey, Speedy Wunderground, and has since won over new fans of what they’re doing in opening for the likes of black midi and Gilla Band.

When your band name is just an initial and you’ve no social media presence, it can be all the more artistically freeing in your path forward as well. O’s debut EP, SLICE, hears Henwood and Keary amplifying their energy through louder bouts of manic instrumentation, often reflective of the circumstances of our world, where highlights such as the extended play’s title track collects chaos into a dance that ultimately becomes unsustainable to contain and “ATM” interpolates “America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee)” into a Lightning Bolt-esque eruption vesseling the duo’s frustration with everything outside of them.

Sound: A two-person orchestra inside of a dance performance theater caught between an earthquake and an explosion, in which its stage is a metaphorical representation of a world on the brink of collapse.

Recommended: “SLICE” and “ATM” off their debut EP, SLICE, and last year’s single, “OGO”

O.’s SLICE will be released November 24th on Speedy Wunderground.