Premiere: Without Each Other’s Otherness, Would Any One Of Us Exist? – Otherish (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

That’s an excellent question. But then again, Otherish is great at asking such rhetorical posers, which few have thought to ask and even fewer could answer with any degree of certainty. But that is the point, isn’t it? The best questions don’t demand a straight answer; they are just there to make you think, think deeply and think differently about the world; they are sort of like Buddhist koans for the atomic age, like “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” or “If supermarkets were less crowded, would more people go to them?” So essentially, it’s a song about oddities and juxtapositions, and opposites – and very attractive ones at that, but that’s what opposites do, after all: attract.

Otherish, perfectly named for this sort of sonic philosophy, is an ever-evolving, long-distance musical process, garnering collaborations from Belfast, Frome, Bristol, and—for this record—St Malo. Okay, it’s a middle-distance musical process, but it is music that couldn’t have come to fruition in earlier, less connected times.

Without Each Other’s Otherness, Would Any One Of Us Exist? is forged in a place where many worlds meet. We find ourselves at the interface between the modern digital world and some old-school analogue vibes (I think), at a place where modern clubland sounds rise up through earlier post-punk electro sonics and where effervescent, modern pop sonics dance deftly with buoyant indie grooves. All of this is washed and softened with gorgeous voice textures and vocal harmonies, and you have a song that understands the musical past that made it possible but which has its eyes set firmly on its own future.

You can dance to it, sing along to it, appreciate its ornate yet easy ways, and discuss its finer sonic points and philosophical propositions until the cows come home. When was the last time a song delivered all of that, and did so in three and a half minutes? Not for a long time, I’ll wager.