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Eoin Murray
5 June 2024, 16:30

Premiere: Om Unit & James Bangura ‘The Page’

Om Unit and James Bangura link up on Local Action for a cross-continental fusion of deep house, garage, breaks and dub

Press photos of James Bangura and Om Unit

Local Action will release a new collaborative EP from Om Unit and James Bangura, ‘Rushing 1621’, this month. Listen to ‘The Page’ below.

Named in reference to both artists’ local area codes, this four-track offering finds the Bristol sound system innovator and Washington D.C. rave specialist on alchemical form, mixing the disparate ingredients of their respective catalogues into a heady dancefloor brew. 

‘Ruffneck’ pours thick bass wobbles and scratchy sirens over a driving breakbeat, before ‘The Page’ gets nestled into its delicious stylistic sweet spot. Woozy synths wrap around a dubwise bassline, deep garage house beat and some real classique vocals and a spoken sample. Proper blissed-out sunrise material.

‘Sapporo Drums’ and ‘Angles’ go deeper still, with the former fusing tight percussive programming with rip-rattling subs and driving NRG and the latter feeling like a Joaquin “Joe” Claussell track given an added splash of dub magic.

The versatility at play in this EP is testament to the artists’ individual talents, and follows Om Unit’s recent ‘Acid Dub: Redux’ with Marta Pang and Bangura’s prolific work as part of Black Rave Culture. Really though, this kind of synergy doesn’t always come easy, and to hear two producers from either side of the Atlantic have a creative conversation that sounds this good and this clear in its vision is such a treat. 

‘Rushing 1621’ will be released on 13th June. Pre-order it here.