Review

Om Unit

Threads

Civil Music • 2013

Here it is at last! The record we’ll be listening to when sitting at our retirement home. Full of nostalgia and relatedness. To be straight: »Threads« is not Jim Coles’s (alias Om Unit’s) biggest possible hit, but it’s his debut record, even though he has been making music since 2004, using aliases like 2Tall and others. Now, the beatsmith from Britain strolls through all kinds of electronic styles of the past few years, using 15 tracks for his musical walk. In the end, there’s something to like for every stubborn and nerdy future senior citizen, something to reconcile over while fighting for the remote control. It’s a true potpourri of tomorrow’s folk- and country-music: instrumental HipHop, bass music in all its variations, juke-approaches, rap with more (MC Jabu) or less (Gone The Hero) good MCs, dubstep, bass-ballads, breakbeat, ambient and drum & bass. Jim Coles has picked up a variety of threads that have been taken up and dropped again since the diversification of electronic music began. It’s easy to see that Coles has studied the stitching patterns well – the seams are stitched up neatly, even though the length of the album makes the whole concept seem a bit obvious: »Threads« is basically a colorful magazine for fashion and needlework. It’s full of music-concepts following a pattern, at some parts producing extra large sizes with wide seams and just too many layers of shimmering sequins here and there.