Ö

Ö

In 2023, the New York party-starters went from selling out their first-ever show in Brooklyn to gigs in Sydney and Tokyo and a set at Paris Fashion Week—all before releasing their first EP, 2024’s Baggy$$. The debut album from the duo of Shanny Wise and Jackson Walker Lewis arrives two years later as the result of a whirlwind two-week session with executive producer Kenneth Blume (fka Kenny Beats) in his LA studio. Having recorded Baggy$$ in Lewis’ NYC bedroom, the opportunity felt like an upgrade. “It was like we had been driving a Kia and then someone gave us keys to a Maserati,” Lewis tells Apple Music’s Tim Sweeney. On Ö, Fcukers’ blend of house, drum ’n’ bass and reggae melds their respective influences into club catnip. A long-time house head, Lewis introduced Wise to ’90s NYC DJ greats like David Morales and Junior Sanchez (the latter of whom remixed two of the duo’s early singles). Meanwhile, Wise grew up listening to Bob Marley and Sublime. “I didn’t really have any preconceived ideas of how I should sing house, or how to write and produce house songs,” she says. “So, it was kind of cool and fun to go into it blind.” Balancing the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of Fcukers’ live shows with slower, slinkier tempos, Ö walks the line between chaotic and cool. “Play Me” is high-octane drum ’n’ bass with a touch of 2000s trap, while “Butterflies” flutters in the middle of the Venn diagram between The Chemical Brothers and The Neptunes. The duo flirts with dub on breakout single “I Like It Like That” and on the hazy “TTYGF” featuring the Montreal rapper Skiifall, while “If you wanna party, come over to my house” doubles as a four-on-the-floor house thumper and a mission statement. As for what’s next, Wise tells Apple Music, “Party. See what happens. Have a great time.”