EP REVIEW
OIL
1.
ELECTRIC TONGUE
|
There's been a period of two years since their debut full length
“Definition Delta”, Dutch band Oil
have taken the next step to refining the sound that they can take forward
and it’s no surprise it’s moved on quite a lot from 2001. The “Electric
Tongue” EP draws from the immense amount of touring they have done over
that time and together with production from Alan Douches (Chemical
Brothers), it shapes the result of the bands six years experience
together. It’s a sound that owes an awful lot to music of the seventies, taking influence from the whole decade, but the results reek of the latter part with a particularly strong feeling of New Wave. They’d have been ideal material for a John Peel Session for his show around that era, along with XTC, Joy Division and The Fall. They take The Stooges punky attitude, the Dr Feelgood rock n roll and with the slightest amount of hardcore belligerence, wrap it all up in a lumpy sound that still manages tune and is often surprisingly melodic. With songs “Electric Tongue”, “Autonomous”, “Modern Record Time” and “Monolith” the bass driven style comes across like a slightly metalized version of The Stranglers, with both music and raw vocals holding the analogy, which also occasionally sounds reminiscent of topsy turvey Welsh band Chang. The closing track offers just a little deviation with “Scrape” - a cover of a song by Dutch punk/hardcore band Deadstoolpidgeon - taking a more old school hardcore route and adding an almost Henry Rollins intensity to the EP. With this EP Oil take you on a bleak yet determined drive through a landscape of fallen and decaying structures, arriving at a small outpost where everyone wears black. It’s an unusual journey, but one you somehow remember from a long passed time, it’s one that you know will become more enjoyable each time you ride it but you’re not absolutely sure why. The advice is don’t think about it - just enjoy the trip…
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- Rigsby (26th
October, 2003) |
