Oliver Wickham is a producer, vocalist and DJ who mixes Progressive House, Techno and classic Rave to create his own unique brand of EDM. By day he works as a music composer for film and television, something that really comes through on previous releases such as the Render: Dreamstate EP, as well as his latest EP Oliver Wickham – Let’s Go Back / Machines / Heart & Mind, in that many of his songs are based around a dramatic but emotive feel that is not as palpable in the music of many of his contemporaries.
Given that it’s being released by the much-lauded Deep, Melodic & Progressive House label Colorize, it will come as no surprise that Oliver Wickham – Let’s Go Back / Machines / Heart & Mind deals chiefly in hypnotic, atmospheric House music. The opening track, Let’s Go Back, for instance, is all hissing percussion and ethereal pads, with a pounding four-to-the-floor beat to drive everything along. Reverb-drench vocal samples dotted throughout add to the track’s lushness, whilst intertwining rhythms serve to create a feel of depth and complexity that is typical of much of Wickham’s previous work. The second track Machines, meanwhile, places perhaps even more focus on the ‘progressive’ element of the genre, moving from one lushly-layered section to another with slick, palpable aplomb. The closing track Heart and Mind then proceeds to move the EP in a slightly different direction, with the track still featuring complex atmospheric musical layers, but also delving more deeply into the genre’s emotional side on account of the reflective vocal segment that opens the track (“the sweetest heart and mind / would still wait there for me?”).
Aside from its musical accomplishments, one of the most significant things about the Oliver Wickham – Let’s Go Back / Machines / Heart & Mind EP is that there’s so much to unpack, despite the fact that the release only contains three songs. Consequently, you can’t help thinking that Wickham’s clear talent for creating complex, intricate House tracks would lend itself even better to a full-length LP, something that we hope we will be seeing from him sooner rather than later.
