3 out of 5

Label: Africantape

Produced by: ?

The other Africantape Oxes single, representing the (relatively) more straightforward rock out of the two. ‘Orange Jewelryist’ is well representative of Oxes stop and start marching flow; ‘Crunchy Zest’ is our guitars / drum band in momentum mode, playing loud and hard, which is… fantastic. The track absolutely kills, at least up through the ending, where their non-conformist habits have them deconstructing the conclusion. This kind of trick works well on Oxes’ albums, where they can follow that playfulness up with some riffage, but as a standalone single, it just means an underwhelming conclusion.

‘Antoni Maiovvi Extended Disco Mix’ is exactly what it sounds like this time – it’s a dance club mix. With no shade meant towards Antoni Maiovvi, this reads as another bit of Oxes humor, delivering a remix that’s not necessarily stylistically aligned. Backup ‘Orange Blossom Special Tractor Pull Mix’ doubles down on the joke, delivering nine minutes of near ambient noise as a remix.

All in isolation these things can work, or maybe there’s a more fleshed out album that links the pieces together. As a single, there’s a mostly excellent song, and then some backup curiosities.