729 is the new project from Birmingham artists Ozu and Erthling. While the two have been in each other’s orbits for a while, this marks their first official collaboration together. They start things off with an EP appropriately titled Greetings.

While Erthling is a dual threat, producing and rhyming, for this project he’s sticking to the beats while Ozu hops on the mic. If you’re familiar with Ertling’s production, you know that he possesses the ability to get weird and ethereal with his beats, but he also knows how to rock the crowd with some beats that bang. And that’s exactly what we get with Greetings. It might only be a four-track introduction to the group, but in the course of those tracks they manage to go from a kind of sci-fi inspired beat to a crowd rocker to a smooth, jazzy beat, and then end on a banger, all while maintaining a sense of flow, so that all of the songs are in conversation with each other. Ozu has a great voice on the mic, with a low conversational twang to his delivery that sounds great as he delivers his words clear and direct, with just a little bit of swing to them. It helps the project have this intimate feel to the proceedings, as Ozu goes from philosophical rhymes to personal confessions, to just fun wordplay. There’s a great deal of promise here, and the two obviously have great chemistry together, and really, the biggest problem with this EP is that it’s over just as it’s starting to get going.

Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for the next project from 729, because it really sounds like Ozu and Erthling are on to something here, and they’ve only begun to scratch the surface. In the meantime, we’ve got a nice four-song introduction to tide us over.