Osees: Intercepted Message

(In The Crimson)

LP | CD | DL

Out now

John Dwyer and Osees proceed on their interminable exploration of their gonzo-garage synth-punk minds on new album Intercepted Message.

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Can it actually be that we’ve needed to wait a complete 12 months for a brand new Osees album? Nothing bar a Levitation dwell launch since final 12 months’s brutal face-melting of A Foul Kind. For some other band (bar after all King Gizzard!) we’d be proclaiming “Again after solely a 12 months!”, however John Dwyer and Co are a kind of bands from whom inspiration pours like a relentless cascade. They’re the sharks that by no means cease transferring. They might stalk their well-defined territory, all the time able to strike, however they’re by no means confined and are in a position to effortlessly shift, camouflage, and emerge with one thing new, one thing recent, and, at occasions, one thing utterly surprising. Play anybody All the time At Night time, the penultimate tune on their new album, Intercepted Message, and I’d guess Dwyers personal immense fuzz pedal assortment that the identify Osees will cross no person’s thoughts. However let’s put a pin in that for later and see how we get there.

After the sonic battering of their final album, Intercepted Message sees them as soon as once more blasting off elsewhere. “Early grade storage pop meets proto-synth punk suicide repellant,” say the band themselves. Yeah, that about sums it up. That is what Osees do after they inject some bubblegum into their gonzo-synth storage sound. Assume again to what The Dirtbombs did to their garage-soul on Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-Blooey! and Osees have performed considerably the identical in their very own model. For essentially the most half, it’s nonetheless defiantly and undoubtedly them, for the entire half it’s an excellent return, dishing out with the brash assault of A Foul Kind to discover one thing altogether extra joyful. That is Osees down the Devo disco on a Saturday evening, synths to the fore, verse-chorus-verse, tripping their balls to the sunshine unbelievable. A sight to see and a complete blast to affix.

Proper from opening monitor and up to date single Stunner, the band are flying on a brand new wave-poptastic groove replete with their distinctive garage-punk assault. It nonetheless retains the sensation that, as with all their work, a lot of the inspiration has come out flowing within the studio; spontaneous lyrics, sounds and sparks flying from the corners. Thematically, the title monitor follows a lot of what we hear on A Foul Kind, the questioning of authority, the manipulation of the media to deceive. “Why seek for one thing you received’t see? Why struggle for one thing you received’t have?” Dywer asks earlier than proclaiming “Your King’s a cunt. It retains you down.” The trick they pull is to wrap all of it up in such a joyful and danceable tune, doubling down on the Devo, sugar to assist us swallow a bitter capsule of reality.

When the band are on stable one-song-to-unite-them-all Osees floor (as stable as it may be with their shifting landscapes), we get tunes like Goon and Sleazoid Psycho with their 70s new-wave punk punch, however what units this album aside from the pack is the way in which during which Dwyer conducts his band by his various influences, making a smorgasbord of sound and delights. On Die Laughing he’s as soon as once more embracing his love of free-form jazz, taking what he did on his Bent Arcana venture and his Witch Egg album to the Osees lots, a stepping stone to extra of his work. The Fish Wants A Bike takes the concept and throws in some Captain Beefheart, whereas on Uncommon And Merciless and Chaos Coronary heart the band are channeling early 70s Bowie, the previous brushed with shades of California psych, Haight Ashbury at its blissful finest. It’s the form of factor you’d have anticipated from The Beta Band again on the top of their powers.

And that brings us to the ultimate two tracks. Wanting again over twenty years’ value of music, now twenty-six albums, John Dwyer has taken us down many twists and turns, a lot in order that his wild shifts have virtually develop into anticipated. Nevertheless, what you’ll by no means have anticipated from him is the attractive All the time At Night time; easy and transferring. Over wistful synths, he requests that we shut out the surface world for only a second and give attention to what now we have between us. Throughout its seven minutes, the tune floats, washing over the senses.

After an album with so many forks within the highway, they log off with the instrumental Ladwp Maintain. Clipped beats and chimes create a John Carpenter-through-the-remixer vibe, cut up immediately by a bored/stoned name operator. “Your name is super-duper vital to us,” she says. “A consultant shall be with you shortly,” she assures us earlier than the tune fades. No downside in any respect. We are able to wait, sit again, hit repeat, and soak up Interceted Message in its entirety as soon as once more.

On Intercepted Meggage Osees might have simply launched a brand new profession excessive.

Comply with Osees on their web site, Fb, and Twitter.

Intercepted Message is accessible from Sister Ray.

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Phrases by Nathan Whittle. Discover his Louder Than Battle archive right here.

Nathan additionally presents From The Storage on Louder Than Battle Radio each Tuesday at 8pm. Tune in for an hour of fuzz-crunching storage rock ‘n’ roll and make amends for all reveals on the From The Storage Mixcloud playlist.