Oppidan has been on my radar for a while now. She would’ve been one of the natural candidates for the next Focus Five article, but after this new EP came out on Night Bass the past week I just couldn’t postpone her debut on FUXWITHIT anymore. Based in Bristol, part of the Steppers Club collective, Oppidan is one of the most interesting artists of the NUKG wave and in the last year has been quite all over the place. At this relatively early stage of her career, she has been already hosted on networks such Rinse FM and Juno Download and she can count in her repertoire releases on 24 Garage Girls, Beastwag, Garage Shared, Kiwi Rekords, Night Bass plus an official remix of Sammy Virji’s hit ‘Shapes’,
This second joint venture with AC Slater’s label is a testament to Oppidan’s consistency. Of all the garage producers I’m currently listening to, she’s the only one able to flawlessly embed strong bass influences in her sound while keeping a perfect balance with the more typical UKG elements. The title track and the single feature, respectively ‘Morning Miggy’ and ‘Motorola’ are two gems whose strong point is an elegant, light-hearted minimalism. A type of mood that is much more often found in house music than Garage. They’re bubbly, they’re groovy, but the deep basses and classy vocals manage to balance the percussive rhythms keeping a status quo that works perfectly both for home listening as well as for rave usage. ‘Colgate’ brings the EP to more ethereal territories, where vocal chops come and go over syncopated breakbeats and dreaming interludes, but in the end it doesn’t stand up to the comparison with the previously mentioned tunes. While it doesn’t really add anything to Morning Miggy, anyway I have to say that it actually works well as a bridge between opening and closing track.
Listen to Morning Miggy below or on your favorite platform here.
