“Grievances” by Otis Mensah

Otis Mensah uses music as a means of exploring the questions that seem unanswerable – both in the outside world and inside himself. He uses abstract and aesthetic language as a tool to provoke thoughts and encourage introspection, unearthing personal and political themes along the way.

His skill at weaving together the aesthetic and philosophical is on full display in his new minimalist EP, ‘things I should have said a year ago’. On the collection, he says, “’things I should have said a year ago’ is a 7-song minimalist jazz-inspired exploration of grief and loss drenched in sonic and conceptual juxtaposition with bubble-gum melodies, dreamlike depictions of melancholy and surrealist imagery. As a musician and artist from the North of England outside the London echo-chamber, I hope that this EP presents as an important outlier amidst the landscape of experimental rap from British voices.”

The EP includes the cut “Grievances”, the music of video for which we have an exclusive preview. Above a lush and intricate soundscape, Mensah’s bars reveal an artist entirely comfortable with his own vulnerability, slickly piecing together questioning with surprising self-realisations. It’s a mellow sound, but there’s a quiet intensity to it too, creating a mixture of mood that feels entirely right for Mensah’s compelling creative work – underscored by the mood of the music video, which sees Mensah express the song’s complexities through the medium of beguiling abstract dance.