We're a week out from the next Bandcampr Friday (the first Friday of each month when Bandcamp waives its fees and lets artists keep all the dough) and I am compelled as if by a spirit whose name I know not to make a timely proclamation. Oui Ennui is dope. Chicago has a lot of underground producers living and working within its borders, but none are able to share their raw journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance as forthrightly while maintaining an air of mystery and privacy as Oui Ennui. Persona is an important part of being an artist these days, even an underground one. But that's not all that is important! You need to have music that Is worth hearing as well. And to that end, Oui Ennui can absolutely throw together some motherfucking, house-fire starting jams.
Sharing and having something worth sharing are both important aspects of being an artist of worthy caliber, but Oui Ennui has really hit a remarkably dynamic balance as to what he shares and what he withholds which makes what he does disclose feel that much more important. I know for a fact that he is sitting on a tremendous amount of music, a sprawling catalog he has been releasing piecemeal throughout quarantine, one album at a time, on Bandcamp Fridays. It's become an anthology of painfully human grooves, often paired with agile, swinging hooks, and puckish beats, all submerged in lo-fi cinematic atmospherics and illuminated by brief philosophical statements in the liner notes. He's on par with a Theo Parrish or Moodymann in my opinion, both in terms of the concerted nature of his work, the deftness and skill it betrays, but also his relative seclusion and avoidance of the spotlight, preferring to let his beats do the talking for him when possible.
His latest album Occupe-toi de tes oignons marks the one-year milestone of his releasing an album every month for a year, and represents some of his best and most approachable published works to date. "Faim de peau" has an old school techno mashup vibe to it, glazing rattling beats with a kiss of smooth, luscious melody, making for a refreshingly danceable experience. "Involuntary Pilates" could have been the updated score to a Soviet-era silent film about brave cosmonauts leaving Earth to bring socialism to the stars, composed by an Eastern European avant-garde sound artist writing in the wake of the Berlin Wall's collapse. Finally, "Leave Me Together" takes rhythmic obsessions of dance music to its natural conclusion, permitting the momentum of the track to overwhelming any sense of melody and restraint, splashing in cascades of foamy fury and heightened emotion, and left to course through your body like a bolt of lighting connecting with the ground beneath your feet. Despite his name, there is not a hint of weariness to Oui Ennui work. In fact, I think he has a stronger will to thrive and create than the majority of the people working in music period, electronic or otherwise. Let's hope he keeps releasing new music each month. For some (well, ok, me) his monthly drops have become almost as much of an event as Bandcamp Friday itself.
