Overmono

Album of the week

A decade ago this month, a duo of brothers took the world by storm with their debut album, which synthesized decades’ worth of UK dance music, filtered it through the moment’s high-intensity EDM, and created something that was invigorating enough to get even the most cynical among us to dance our asses off. By the time that Disclosure released Settle, the Welsh brothers Tom and Ed Russell were already making music on their own (Tom as Truss and Ed as Tessela) and were well-regarded, but it wasn’t until they started making music together as Overmono that they became a sensation. When the duo made their Coachella debut last month, the energy they spent the past seven years building up was readily apparent.

Overmono began in earnest after the Russell brothers rented out a cabin for a week with the intention of trying to collaborate with each other, an idea they’d vaguely entertained beforehand that had never really worked out. But something clicked during that week, and they emerged with songs that had an immediately identifiable aesthetic, one that was different from the dub and techno-leaning music they had been making separately. What drew the brothers together was sampling. They built out a library of different sounds, but what really became the crux of most Overmono songs was the vocal sample. “Nearly always when we end up sampling stuff, it’s the kind of tone of someone’s voice that we’re really drawn towards,” Ed said in an interview. “And then we try to make it melodically how we want it to fit with the tone. The tone is kind of everything, isn’t it?”

Good Lies is populated by voices, none the brothers’ own. You might recognize a couple of them: Tirzah’s “Gladly” (one of the best songs of the last decade) is flipped on the propulsive “Is U,” while slowthai’s familiar bark closes out the album on “Calling Out.” But most of the samples are the result of digital crate-digging, not dissimilar to what the Range engaged in on his masterful 2016 album Potential. The Russell brothers elevate their sources, turn the raw material of an impassioned performance into something transcendent: “Walk On Water” stretches out the striving of St. Panther’s “Greatness” so that instead of hyping you up it makes you wonder why you’ve got any hope at all; “In My Feelings,” a 2021 track by the British-Algerian songwriter Miraa May, is morphed into the album’s shuddering, effervescent opener.

The brothers refined their method of sampling over a long string of EPs and singles that started coming out in 2016, not long after they signed to XL Recordings. Overmono is a play on Overmonnow, an area near where the brothers grew up in rural South Wales. Their first exposure to dance music was parties that took place in pubs, the woods, other unconventional spaces outside the club. Tom, who is 10 years older than Ed, took his younger brother under his wing as he started making music of his own. Their partnership was born of geeked-out enthusiasm, which bleeds through into their exploratory, enthusiastic approach. “When we got older, we realized there’s these scenes that look down on each other and blah blah blah,” Tom said. “Like if you played a certain track in a certain club they wouldn’t like it. I think what Ed and I do now, we really try to embrace that mentality we had growing up, that freedom we had when we were first discovering this music.”

Not to belabor too fine a point, but when they first came up, Disclosure were talking a similar game about breaking down the often rigid boundaries between the UK’s morass of genres. The parallels are too low-hanging to ignore: Two pairs of brothers painted as the acolytes of electronic music, determined to democratize the sport. Good Lies in many ways feels like 2023’s answer to Settle: a reflection of dance music’s current vibes-first manner, more subtle but still appealing. Settle’s cadre of featured vocalists has given way to the muffled anonymity that recalls the jolt of hearing something mesmerizing through the algorithm. And while Good Lies is less pop-leaning, has more true blue “electronic music” energy — dark-sided wobbles and heady trances and foggy strobings — there are enough populist moments that have that Disclosure je ne sais quoi, the kind of dance music that even your non-electronic-music-minded friends would like — tracks like “Feelings Plain,” “Is U,” and “Good Lies,” the album’s title track and defining statement.

“Good Lies” was the first song that the brothers started working on when they decided to finally make an album, but it was the last song they finished, and it sounds like the album’s guiding light: an idealized version of Overmono that is too potent to ignore. They take “No Harm,” a 2015 track by the Norwegian duo Smerz, and inject it with swirling, pulse-pounding energy, an invigorating loop that adds up to a song you could imagine pumping out of speakers all summer long. Wisely, Overmono didn’t overload their debut album with songs as easy and approachable as this. Good Lies is a more abstract album than its most accessible moments would suggest. But they’re in it for the long haul: One transcendent crowd-pleaser is enough for now.

Overmono – ‘Good Lies’ review: transcendent, head-rushing dance anthems

On their long-awaited debut, the duo retain all the hallmarks of their early work while dialling up the ambition

Starting out a decade ago under the separate DJ monikers of Tessela and Truss, Welsh brothers Tom and Ed Russell made techno and dubstep respectively, becoming two respected figures of the UK dance underground. It was only when the pair formed Overmono in the mid-2010s, though, that a certain alchemy was uncovered, mixing their underground beginnings with pop sounds aiming towards more widespread audiences.

Since then, their sound has been streamlined and beefed up over a series of EPs and mixes. In 2021, the track ‘So U Kno’ – a deliciously catchy hammerblow of chopped vocals and metallic beats – could be heard blaring out of festival tents and at raves up and down the country, becoming one of the most omnipresent tracks of the post-lockdown summer.

On their debut album ‘Good Lies’, the pair retain all the hallmarks of the project so far, while unashamedly dialling up the ambition; the hooks here are sweeter, the beats harder. Single ‘Walk Thru Water’ is a sparkling song built around a trap-inspired beat and assisted by St Panther, while ‘Arla Fearn’ is a fantastically dark behemoth.

The simplest comparison for the duo – and with good reason – is Burial, whose icy textures and sharp snare hits are all over ‘Good Lies’. While William Bevan’s project is happy to stay in the shadows though, Overmono routinely break through them towards pop transcendence. Closing track ‘Calling Out’ samples Slowthai and and CASISDEAD over thudding two-step, while ‘Is U’ contrasts its razor-sharp percussion with a sugary vocal sample and melodic synths.

This boundary-pushing ethic has also been shown in a recent slate of remixes, where they’ve turned Irish songwriter For Those I Love’s heavy, grief-ridden masterpiece ‘I Have A Love’ into a joyous techno romp, and most recently brought Ed Sheeran’s ‘Eyes Closed’ into their glitchy orbit. They’re fast becoming the go-to duo for pairing dance and radio pop.

While most of ‘Good Lies’ balances sweetness in the melodic vocal samples with harsher percussion, title track is deliciously warm throughout. On it, they take a sample from the lo-fi ‘No Harm’ by XL-signed pop duo Smerz and expertly turn it into a brilliantly  catchy hook. It’s not a stretch at all to imagine it bursting out of festival main stage speakers at night.

Overmono have described their debut album as “a letter of love to the journey so far [that also] marks where we want to take things,” and ‘Good Lies’ puts the pair on the edge of a major breakthrough. Its pop-leaning moments are also its most exciting, and the creativity and skill with which they bridge these worlds is thrilling.

Overmono: Good Lies review – UK rave history is distilled to perfection

Knitting garage with techno and chopped-up vocals, the pounding yet poppy debut album from Monmouth brothers Ed and Tom Russell is masterfully done

An album built on a family’s strong roots…

Tom and Ed Russell came from humble beginnings. Forging a music career out in the Welsh countryside, there was little to do other than produce music. From the age of 14, the duo began building the foundations of what is now Overmono and the drop of their album ‘Good Lies’ has been worth the wait. 

Tom and Ed Russell AKA Overmono started out with separate solo careers; Tom made techno and Ed made dubstep. The two struggled without their respective other and years later they formed Overmono, named after a suburb of Monmouth called Overmonnow. Their new album ‘Good Lies’ released via XL Recordings is a 12 track electronic ensemble that provides a reflective look back on their family’s history. 

Emerging as underground artists with EP ‘Arla I’ in 2016, it wasn’t until their remix of electronic heavyweight, Four Tet’s ‘Teenage Birdsong’ that the duo blew up. In 2023, a waterfall release strategy fed the public singles ‘Is U’, ‘Walk Thru Water’ ‘So U Know’, ‘Calling Out’ and ‘Good Lies’, all headed with a Dobermann as their mascot.

An electronic choir set the tone in new lead track ‘Feelings Plain’, creating complex harmonies with layered vocal lines. Many of the tracks are sampled from the depths of band camp, weaving through each song seamlessly, accompanied by breaks and heavy drums. New tracks ‘Area Fearn’ and ‘Skulled’ are certainly standouts with break beats and deep subs acting as a solid accompaniment to the choral vocals.

Paying tribute to loves emotional hardships, lyrics sit upon beats drawing influence from American rap records. Collaboration is certainly an avenue that many producers explore to help gain reach. The feature of slowthai, St Panther and Tirzah are a refreshing addition to ‘Good Lies’ without overcrowding the album to deter away from its main sound. Encompassing what is currently popular in the electronic scene today, ‘Calling Out ’ and ‘Walk Thru Water’ provide a darkness that the UK seem to be currently craving. By capping the artist features to a minimum, you hear what a pure-bred version of Overmono sounds like. 

Refining their production without chaotically jumping genre, ‘Good Lies’ is setting aside Overmono from the rest. The epitome of 2023 sound, the album breathes a continuously dynamic aura; a perfect picture of what electronic music is morphing into. Releasing a limited edition vinyl LP alongside a patriotic tea towel that parades their Dobermann icon, the duo are pushing boundaries to release music creatively.

This album is an experience built upon legacy, brought to us through a partnership like no other. ‘Good Lies’ displays the strength of brotherhood, solidifying their position within the scene by cherishing childhood’s sweetness. 

Good Lies has set Overmono up for a bright future.

The Welsh brothers earned a rep for festival anthems that bridge big-room functionalism with subtle experimentation. On their debut album, they go in search of transcendence.