Sweet, a drum 'n' bass release. Damn, it's been, like, forever since- Eh? Oh, right, Photek's Form & Function, just a couple months ago. Alright, got me there, but since before that one? You'll have to go back a literal year, to Centaspike's Bent Bound Broken, when I last covered the genre. Blame it on all that psy trance making these gaps artificially vast.
Anyhow, Omni Music. This is a label that kicked off at the start of the '10s, a means of producer Eschaton to release tunes that didn't fit on other, established labels. Not sure how accurate that is, but my recollection of the state of d'n'b back then is a bit sketchy now. Probably not so robust for those who were interested in sounds outside the Pendulum or liquid funk oeuvre. Yeah, there will always be Good Looking Records (as well as Looking Good Records), but surely there was demand for more outlets of jungle on the jazzy, intelligent tip, right.
Must be indeed, Omni Music carrying on to this day, with a catalogue of three-hundred plus records. Oh my, where does one even start with this label, then? For our purposes, it's an EP compilation called Hidden Realms. I... have no memory of why I picked this particular item. Oh, there's a specific reason how I came across Omni, but has nothing to do with this. It wasn't a recent item either, so wouldn't have been an impulse buy upon first stumbling in. Heck, it doesn't even have blue cover art! A mystery for sure.
Whatever, I have it now, so let's dig in. Each track is a collab' effort, the first featuring Enjoy and Pariah. Don't know much about the former, but Pariah had been a staple of the aforementioned Bukem prints early on. And if you know anything about that namedrop, then you should know what sort of d'n'b we're in for. Sonic Void is mostly an ultra-deep techy session, though does pick up in the back-half with a little Amen Break action complimenting the minimalist spacey synths leading the melody. Omni honcho Eschaton follows up with Booca (very little Discogs presence) on Behind The Magenta, a far more jazzy, atmospheric outing with broken beats, operatic choirs, heavenly leads, trombones... A real stew of sounds, but darn cool in a blissy sort of way.
Third track State Of Consciousness is another 'veteran meets newbie' session featuring DJ Trax and Infest (3). It, too, follows the vintage LTJ vibe, with busier drum work but no less chill on the melodic side. The final two producers, Parhelia and Dissident, are relative newcomers compared to the '90s folks, but have still been in the game over a decade now. The Day Of 5 Suns is suitably grand in scope for such a title, conjuring sci-fi vistas and all that. Is this the level of quality for the whole damn Omni Music catalogue? Gosh, only one way to find out! ...but I'm not the person to do so.
ACE TRACKS:
Booca & Eschaton - Behind The Magneta
DJ Trax & Infest - State Of Consciousness
Dissident & Parhelia - The Day Of 5 Suns
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