If my review of Ghost of Us All wasn’t enough to convince you that Oll Ef are a condensation of the best that music can give, allow me to try once again. With one of the best instrumentals I had heard last year, I refused to believe this group isn’t top of the charts all the time. However, in the music society, we know that true gems are hidden. My attempt is to uncover this refractive piece and show it to the light. This is Oceaneater.
If the last album was Oll Ef touching the skies, they just took flight to space. Oceaneater can’t be compared by vibes, but the production, quality of sound and general execution is so much more in sync. The title track itself is enough for you to appreciate this laser dance of guitars, drums and an ambient skypunch that rattles my headphone shells. Appreciate the stereo sound, better turn off mono in your Spotify settings.
How do you take every predictable element of a song and yet end up with something beyond your imagination? Ask Oll Ef. Their track has the galloping drums, bass entering like a sleuth, and the guitars shredding stadium seats from their very bolts. The buildup was to this, but definitely not what it was supposed to transform into. A Moment of Your Reverence you say? Deservedly given with full honors. The texture change in the middle? Take the money and run.
Gypsum Blind tries something new. With an almost electronic, cyborg soul-this song exploits the beauty of layered guitar. Almost impossible to hear the brilliance of each part, I heard the track four times just to enjoy the dance of the strings. Capitalising on the soulful aura of the ambience, I realise I’m once step closer to the edge of the world. Great track.
Gliding past time
Crown Pleaser was released as a single earlier this year. That’s because it has a small bit of every song-yet finds its own tributaries. The rhythmic nature of the guitars really allowed me to appreciate the bass and the drums, shining with its own light and with defiant brilliance. Unprepared for the change in sound in this track, the excitement kept me hearing keenly till the end.
Dragging a moment. Like that wormhole planet where time stretches in Interstellar, Every Instant is an Eternity of Its Own makes the same sonic treatment. A completely different take from the original score maker, this song’s guitar loop is a dreamy tone that strokes like a heartbeat. As each guitar makes a complementing sphere of sound and energy, the song takes rest before it restarts in a gargantuan wave. The wait might be worth it.
With more spaced out notes, There is Always Something That Connects Us touches our memories in different ways. With each instrument seemingly speaking in a different dialect, they all condense together. The one general dream-music. Transcending barriers of displacement, this song makes the most of the quality of tone in all the instruments-light to the touch.
A darker hook
Is it the same band? Is it not? Oll Ef take a darker, heavier tune with An All Pervading Delirium. With Steven Wilson style guitar riffs, this tone shows the versatility this band has in many fronts. The song turns melodic almost immediately. Each guitar does its own part in making the track a special, force of frequencies unheard in the other tracks. The work in this track is phenomenal, on all aspects.
With Katatonia like sound, Our Lady of Tears makes its way to a creative combustion of maniacal proportions. The layers are impossible to break down in a single listen, so I had a few more. The harmony building is intense in all matters music related. City in the Sky closes out this album with another beckoning beat. The song builds on this beat, one string instrument at a time. The effects used are well thought and even more impressively executed.
Oll Ef has a purpose as a collective that only they know. Beyond crystal balls and tarot cards, they have a desire to create something of space and time that won’t impress in your memory forever. However, their music is timeless in the essence that most of it melts away, The formula is organic, they are thrifty with the notes and hence each of it counts. Every track breathes the life into this album it promises to. They are bigger than this world for this album, so they can have the ocean in a bite.
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Discovered via http://musosoup.com
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Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
