Gang Colours - The Keychain Collection
- Written by Stephanie Stevens-Wade
Gang Colours is the young Southampton producer Will Ozanne, armed with a debut album that’s modern and mournful, smooth and soulful and an open door welcoming you into his electronic adventures, daydreams and childhood memories.
It was Mercury-nominated Ghostpoet, who was signed onto Giles Peterson’s Brownswood label back in 2010, who requested Ozanne to remix his hit 'Cash And Carry Me Home'. As Brownswood’s recent signing, Ozanne already has last years EP In Your Gut Like A Knife under his belt and his debut album The Keychain Collection is something of similar beauty.
Opener 'Heavy Petting' starts the chilled, RnB, hip-hop mashup theme of the album but it’s also the arthouse pop of Laurie Anderson, Basquiat and Artful Dodger that have also had a huge influence - most noticeable in 'Pebble Dash', as it picks up the pace of the album with heavier bass and old video game style electronics.
The Keychain Collection explores personal somber elements but keeps the peculiar jittering synths that characterised his EP. 'To Repel Ghosts' has electronics resembling raindrops on pans and a delicate piano with a jingle burst of Christmas bells.
The dark piano introduction of 'I Don’t Want You Calling' puts you on a completely different page of the album and sweeps you away with synths and Ozanne’s distorted breathy vocals. Putting the melancholic vibe aside he also pulls apart every element of garage music: the dance, emotion, groove and tempo. Featuring rustling cymbals, and an infectious beat 'Botley In Bloom' is the most garage-influenced track, but ends in the same sad piano chords repeated in other tracks.
We end on a happy note with first single off the album 'Fancy Restaurant' slotting into the pop genre perfectly with a romantic and seducing edge followed by 'On Compton Bay' – the most infectious and playful track with heart stopping echoing vocals, pulling together the whole album.
The Keychain Collection resembles the casualness and husky vocals of Diagrams and James Blake creating a pleasing concoction of textured sounds, hazy electronics, humble melodies, dubstep beats and ambient piano. There are so many small quaint details, every single one precisely placed and pieced together like a puzzle, making The Keychain Collection a worthy addition to your music collection.