Octo Octa’s own work swims the gulf separating dance music’s utopian, transcendental side from the bodies grinding up against capitalist demands and social alienation—and perhaps each other, too, if a night’s shape allows. She describes and comforts anxiety.
Pitchfork

Octo Octa’s core moods of displaced identity and rapturous intimacy give way to an adrift, uneasy feeling on Between Two Selves. The album’s four sides are spacious and sensual – the reclining nude of Octo’s Blue Period – with room to breathe and swoon. There’s fewer elements in the mix but more space to explore them, amorous samples pitched down and out across abstracted, extended compositions: “I don’t want you to go,” “All his kisses taste sweet,” etc. A deep accomplishment of regal soul and melancholy.
Bandcamp

Music definitely allowed me to unlock that emotional side of myself, especially with coming out. Before that there were societal pressures to be more reserved. It was very real and heavy. The lyrics are where I let it go before coming out. There’s a lot of power in trying to harness that vulnerability and that has proved extremely healing for me. Using music as permission to go beyond art and personally enact something in the world with the people I love. That’s what makes this all worth it.
CRACK

I definitely don’t know how to do the whole “this really needs this one chord to convey this deep sadness that I have right now” – it just doesn’t happen that way. But I can listen back and remember why I was feeling that certain way on that day. A lot of that still ends up being just for myself, though, so I’ll use the track titles to convey extra meaning if I feel like it’s not really there from the music alone.
LBJ