- It speaks volumes of your connection to your craft when you can display the breadth of your influences in a manner that is focused and congruent; but it’s no easy feat. Particularly with DJs and electronic producers, the best always listen widely and select precisely, produce in a way that gleans from the past and forges the new. This is why Pleomorphism (which means the occurrence of more than one form in the life cycle of an animal) the debut album from Melbourne’s Ok Sure is of recognisable quality.
After collecting a number of accolades and experiences you can hear the refinement and confidence in her practice across the album in comparison with her previous work. Much like Oneohtrix Point Never, Ok Sure displays a deft ability to blend the digital with the acoustic. From opening exotic samples in Steel Heart Prelude to the crushed drum break in Modern Devil, her way of rendering organic textures into digital-bits exudes a reverence for history and a delight in the new like sharing '70’s era slides via instagram: they carry natural influence, a guiding poignancy for a new expression.
It’s not dissimilar to Zola Jesus’ 2017 release Okovi, a hard hitting album that dealt with depression, in which the production served as a present resolve from which the artist is afforded energy to process their challenges, to rest upon their art in support of their growth. Ok Sure uses foundations of solid techno and deep house grooves as a platform for herself and her guests to be confident in their lyrical honesty, facing forward in the wake of hurtful experiences.
Even after the album’s lyrical content dissolves into the vast reverbs of her dark electronica, the power remains. The back end of the album throbs and pulses, flirting stylistically from big beat in Atlas to the abstract drama of Arca with In The Sky. Through all of these tracks, you never lose sense of being in Ok Sure’s creative domain. It’s all distinctly her. This is the greatest testament to Pleomorphism, with all of the possibility that electronica afford, Ok Sure has crafted a mutli-facted album that exhibits ambition and flair.
- NJR.