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Music

Listen to Octo Octa's Oddball House Jam, "Cause I Love You"

This is not your mama's house music.

There is a sickness infecting our airwaves, and it is the staid wave of predictable house music known as "mom house." I'm not sure who to blame for this epidemic—lazy producers, the always-near-bursting-but-not-just-yet EDM bubble, or house music's intrinsic formula. But why did God create suffering on this fair earth? So that we can better appreciate the efforts of the pure-hearted and brave, duh.

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On the other end of the spectrum, you've got Octo Octa (Brooklyn's Michael Bouldry-Morrison). Octo Octa is out there on the front line, fighting the scourges of mom house with his slightly screwy house tracks—and he's got one of the sweetest handlebar moustaches we've seen in a minute. "Cause I Love You," the title track off his new EP on 100% Silk, is eccentrically wonky, with vocal samples layered elaborately over tumbling, scattershot percussion. But the effect is still warmly uplifting, and ultimately rings true to the vintage house sound. Only a disciplined devotee schooled in house music's framework would be able to tap dance so deftly outside of them.

Michelle is dancing her way to Miami - @MichelleLHOOQ