<p><span><span>- When you decide the best name for your hip hop crew is Order Sixty6, either you don’t take yourself too seriously, or you’re <strong>MC Frontalot</strong>. The Brisbane outfit of that name doesn’t appear to be New York’s nerdiest in disguise, so they must be pretty relaxed about how people take them; but I mean, couldn’t you have chosen a better Star Wars film to reference?</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Fortunately the quartet of <strong>S.A.B,</strong> <strong>Apollø</strong>, <strong>Professor Paul</strong> and <strong>melrose</strong> sound better than George Lucas directs, these days. While there’s barely a dusting of nerdcore in their debut EP, <em>Chester</em>, and often-times they don't sound very relaxed, the beats rotate from track to track, keeping things interesting and they mix it up, with conscious cuts morphing into easygoing party raps and a straight-up love song or two.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Some of the best rapping on the EP and certainly, out of South East Queensland, can be found on the first few cuts. <em>Suburbia </em>gradually builds a head of steam: rolling out with an aimlessly chill <strong>Brockhampton </strong>vibe the urgency grows as “<em>riding round in circles</em>” fails to satisfy and the focus closes in ever more narrowly, eye almost manically on the prize: “<em>I gotta I gotta I gotta I gotta / I gotta give everything that I can!</em>” The intensity powers on into just about the only other nerdy reference here, <em>Bruce Banner</em>. It’s on the same self-improvement wagon: “<em>Greatness takes time, it’s a mantra, but I want to get big Bruce Banner.</em>” <em>Neighbours </em>is like the payoff for all the pressure, “<em>My neighbour’s used to call the police, they wanted all the music to stop / Now they play our shit on repeat.</em>” Short, sharp and plenty of bass, it’s a banger no doubt.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>After the tunnel vision of the a-side, the back half of <em>Chester</em> chills out with the slinky latin trap of the self-explanatory <em>Rebound</em>, “<em>might as well enjoy it</em>”. <em>Showcase </em>is that straight-up love song. It’s disarmingly endearing with its almost naive romance and pop r’n’b. It’s a very different beast from what’s come before and, to be honest, it’s less my jam than some of the rest, but it demonstrates an impressive range for Order Sixty6. <em>Summertime</em> flips those loving sentiments into nostalgia and a return to the conscious vibes in an introspective tour of tender feelings. Continuing the neat tracking, the arc of the EP balances out with the bittersweet release of closer <em>Sunday Night</em>, which blends all the spectrum of emotions blaring out across the record, weighing them up and finding that there’s still hope for good things to come: “<em>we just wanna party / Even on a Sunday night</em>.” </span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Chester</em> is like a grab-bag of youthful emotion and energy, nearly spilling out romance, ambition and raw twenty-something craziness all over the place. For all that, when you look at the bigger picture, you realise that Order Sixty6 bring a bunch of outsize skills for their age and have things surprisingly under control. This EP really does feel like a showcase, a roadmap to a variety of futures and all of them promising. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Chris Cobcroft.</span></span></p>
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