Audio Asia: Okedo & Pluto Monkey serve hazy deep house textures on 'Prayer for a Simple Time'
The Delhi-based artists fuse deft musicality with infectious heads-down bump
Title: Prayer For A Simple Time
Artist: Okedo & Pluto Monkey
Label: Creative Bin Records
Release Date: Out now
New Delhi-based duo Okedo & Pluto Monkey combine forces on the ‘New Fusion Movements’ EP.
Featuring six cuts steeped in loose-limed musicality, the release sees the pairing explore varying sonic textures — from deep house headiness to blissed-out ambient meditations.
Okedo is the production moniker of Ishaan Gandhi, while Pluto Monkey is the nom de plume of Antriksh Mohapatra. In a refreshingly down-to-earth press release, the outfit describe the EP as “the product of two lonely, strange, introverted, broke, average-looking, lazy, multi-disciplinary, multi-instrumentalists getting together and jamming with the limited set of tools and skills they possess.” The entirely engaging results are an imaginative selection of moods and grooves rooted in live instrumentation while endowed with lo-fi electronic swagger.
The music, which was recorded over “just a couple of Sunday jams,” feels accomplished throughout, from the dreamy opener ‘無形 Exploration’ to the soul-drenched, future garage explorations of closing track ‘In Ur Eyez? (feat. Rounak Maiti)’. While all of the included titles are worthy of consideration, our Audio Asia pick this week is arguably the most floor-focused of the set, ’A Prayer for a Simple Time’. Here, dusty drums drive hazy pads and delicate synth motifs, with the sonics perfectly pitched for backroom manoeuvres and heady nocturnal sessions.
You can listen to ‘A Prayer for a Simple Time’ here:
‘New Fusion Movements’ by Okedo & Pluto Monkey is out now, you can buy it here
Patrizio Cavaliere is Mixmag Asia’s Music Editor, follow him on Instagram
