One of the most avant garde artists to appear in the UK scene in recent memory, ATO further distinguishes himself from his peers on the stark, striking and emotionally potent EP ‘Side A’.

The British-Ghanian-Danish rapper carries an intrinsic musicality, with a stylised sound unlike anything that you will have heard before. Having been creating music since the age of 9, the Leeds-based enigma has been bubbling beneath the surface of the UK underground for a few years now, but now looks set to emerge; announcing himself to the alternative scene with this sprawling and artistic project.

Despite being condensed into just 5 tracks, ATO offers so much - both musically and lyrically. The EP’s soundscapes vary from minimalistic to all-encompassing, as the listener voyages through glistening sonic palettes and intimate narratives. It’s a deeply personal body of work, with each track touching on a significant, often traumatic aspects of the rappers life, offering refreshing vulnerability in the poetic narration. Whether conveying the difficulty of racial disenfranchisement that hung over ATO’s Yorkshire upbringing on ‘Garrowby Way’ or the inspiring, rejuvenating ‘Nobu’, each track feels like a delicate and powerful fragment of the rappers mind.

The EP is accompanied by a video for featured single ‘ziamonds!!’, which is an atmospheric number full of serene inflections and introspective writing. The glitchy aesthetic of the track is mirrored in the harrowingly edited video.

Speaking on the track, ATO remarked:

“I have found the power of the imagination to be vital to rediscovering myself. You can learn a lot from things that are not real. When I wrote “ziamonds !!”, I was in a dark and confused state. The song blurs the line between reality and fantasy. It makes light of living with mental health issues and finds a silver lining to begin painting something brighter and forward-facing.”

With Tour de France performances, grandiose production and heartrending writing, ATO’s new EP is a spectacle to behold. Definitely an artist to get to know, if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of being acquainted.