CUT & PASTE

After a string of rambunctious critically acclaimed singles Oscar is delighted to announce that his hotly anticipated debut LP Cut and Paste. You can hear the clear influence of a West London upbringing in the basement rhythm of quot;Be Goodquot; or the dub bass line and echo of the anthem uplifting quot;Good Thingsquot. You re hit by the boom-bap breakbeat of his beloved mid-90s hip hop on quot;Breaking My Phonequot; and quot;Beautiful Wordsquot; before swooning to his more tender side on quot;Only Friendquot; where Oscar is joined by Marika Hackman for a gorgeous duet over a sea of bubbling synths or quot;Fifteenquot; an addictive love song ragged at the edges and wearing it s heart defiantly on it s sleeve. Despite the wide range of influences on display the album is unified by Scheller s beautiful baritone vocal and his keen ear for a melody. And although self-produced the resulting album by no means contains the average lo-fi crackly sound one might expect from someone tagged as a quot;bedroom producerquot. Choosing the strongest songs from the demos that originally attracted Wichita to his music Scheller set about re-recording the vast majority of the elements at home - not missing the opportunity to step into a proper studio to add live drums (played by his drummer Aramis Gorriette) alongside his own drum machine programming and sampled breaks for the first time. These new recordings were then passed on to Ben Baptie (Adele Mark Ronson Lianne La Havas Albert Hammond Jr. Etc.) to be mixed and to have the dub-influence turned up further with the subtle echo effects that you can hear throughout if you listen carefully. Overall Cut and Paste is the sound of a new musical prodigy well and truly arriving and a more than worthy addition to the lineage of eccentric classic British pop.