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O.

With just a drum kit and baritone sax, O. reimagines experimental instrumental music as a vibrant collision of metal, dub, jungle, funk, noise, and more. London-based drummer Tash Keary and saxophonist Joe Henwood employ the precise technique and interplay of their jazz roots in audacious, ever-changing ways, laying out the sprawling foundations of their music on 2023's Slice EP and channeling the furious intensity of their live shows on 2024's charged debut album WeirdOs.Keary began playing the drums when she was nine, initially playing on pillows and tissue boxes before graduating to a real kit in high school. At first, she was influenced by the programmed beats of hip-hop and dance music before discovering jazz and falling in love with the styles of Art Blakey and Karriem Riggins. In 2018, Keary found her way to the Female Frontline band of the grassroots music organization Tomorrow's Warriors. It was after a 2019 Tomorrow's Warriors show that she met Henwood, who played with the Afro-jazz group Nubiyan Twist for a decade and took inspiration from the effects-laden technique of experimental saxophonist Pete Wareham. Though they could feel the chemistry when they played, other commitments kept Henwood and Keary from collaborating in earnest until the COVID-19 global pandemic made playing shows impossible. During lockdowns, they joined households so they could bond over their shared love of Radiohead, Deftones, and Floating Points, and improvise for hours. Their sessions pushed their music away from jazz and closer to the rock, electronic, and rap sounds they loved as kids, influences that were evident when the duo started performing live in early 2022. Originally dubbing themselves Toe before learning of a Japanese post-rock band with the same name, O. played a gig at the famed Brixton venue The Windmill that led to tours with Gilla Band and Black Midi. In turn, the duo connected with Black Midi producer Dan Carey, who signed O. to his Speedy Wunderground label, which released the debut single "OGO" in November 2022. A year later, O. released the Slice EP, also recorded with Carey. Keary and Henwood returned with their first full-length, the Carey-produced WeirdOs, in June 2024. Some of the duo's most freewheeling music to date, the album ranged from doom metal to breakbeats to dub excursions.
© Heather Phares /TiVo

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Discography

21 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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