'Dosage' by OTOOTO

'Dosage' is the new album release from Danish quintet, OTOOTO, who swiftly follow up on last year's debut release with a fantastic second album.

Continuing their fruitful relationship with April Records, last year's fresh-faced full-length 'This Love is For You' introduced listeners to the band's vision for contemporary jazz which was bursting with innovative and inspired ideas and concepts underpinned by a sublime neo-soul aesthetic that worked wonders with the band's overall compositions.  Excitingly, just over a year since OTOOTO introduced themselves to the world, the quintet boldly seek to reinvent their sound and are able to conceive a second album that finds entirely new inspiration within an even more eclectic soundscape. 

OTOOTO is comprised of members saxophonist Oilly Wallace, trumpeter Jonas Due, Matthias Petry on bass, Calle Brickman on keys and Andreas Svendsen on drums. Although a tight-knit quintet consisting of incredibly talented young Danish musicians, it is Wallace and Due who act as the nucleus of OTOOTO. As founding members and responsible for the project's production for 'This Love is For You', OTOOTO is a fascinating meeting of the minds of these two shining lights from Danish jazz each bringing a wealth of experience to the table. 

For saxophonist Wallace, his expertise have been honed as part of numerous ensembles, including his own Oilly Wallace Quartet, while trumpeter Due proves to be just as in-demand a musician amidst the Danish scene who can further boast having graced stages across Europe and the US.  Through each of their numerous projects, both Wallace and Due have become adept at creating music that celebrates their affections across the ever-broadening scope of contemporary jazz, be them as varied as big band projects to the avant-garde to improvisational collectives.  Despite these extensive resumes and credentials, OTOOTO's 'Dosage' still makes it way to us in near record time and proves to be just as thrilling as its predecessor.

While the music throughout 'This Love is For You' revelled in sublime horns and lush keys, 'Dosage' digs deeper within the players' bag of tricks presenting a more dynamic approach to what now defines OTOOTO.  More synth-heavy compositions along with tracks that showcase a more improvised nature add so much personality that each track stands out as wholly distinctive throughout the nine tracks assembled here.  Rapper E Brown serves as an excellent guest on 'Everything Matters to Me' adding very welcome hip-hop sensibilities to the album and Swedish vocalist Lucky Lo further contributes to two of the album's high points with appearances on the glossy synth backdrop of 'You Should Know Me Better' and the elegant 'Take a Little Time'.

It's a real testament to the overall skill and creativity of OTOOTO to be able to deliver two vastly different projects within such a short amount of time.  While 'Dosage' will certainly occupy our speakers for some time - as 'This Love is For You' still does - an uncontrollably inquisitive nature can't help but wonder where album #3 could possibly take them so fingers crossed that in time we'll find out.