Oxia – “Tides of Mind” – [InFine]

Belladonna   5/8/2013   A Library, CD

Oxia is Olivier Raymond a French DJ/producer, well known in the house music scene and making music for 20 years. He co-founded both the Ozone and Goodlife labels. Oxia was a duo formed with Stephane Deschezeaux but is now a solo project. Strangely enough this is only his second full-length release.

“Tides of Mind” is an interesting mix of beats, some deep house with some soothing, mellow techno sounds. He uses jazz and classical instrumentation and guest vocals (Miss Kitten, Mesparrow, Scalde) to keep things interesting. I don’t love the Scalde guest vocals but Miss Kitten is so quirky on “Housewife”, its weird enough that the non beat heads might want to give it a try. Overall this is very upbeat so expect an involuntary toe tap or booty shake.

My favorites are tracks 1 & 11 the intro and outro, filled with beautiful orchestral lushness yet sadly they are teeny tiny little micro songs. I’d love to see him explore more of those minimal sounds.