With so many rock bands producing music these days, there is also pressure on a band to make themselves sound different to anything else that is there. One band that has done that very successfully is Sydney band Oslow. Word out of the Harbour City for a while now has been that this is a band with a huge future ahead of them and they certainly don’t disappoint with their self-titled debut album.
Oslow is the type of album that really feels like it is taking its listener on a musical journey. The opening track, Asleep In The Hallway, sees the band start out with a wall of noise that gives way to melodic guitar which results in a drifting soundscape that feels like it is lifting you up out of your chair.
At time the band do seem to drift into familiar territory – Sewing and Cold Dark Space are the kind of smooth, catchy rock that bands like Motor Ace were doing in the early 2000s. But for the most part on the album Oslow have their own sound… and it is a sound that I have fallen in love with pretty quickly.
Their own sound comes through on Los Croydos which sees the band move back to that melodic guitar sound while Dylan Farrugia’s post-punk vocals come to the fore and really shine through. They back that up with Everything Etc. which is so relaxed and loose that it sounds like the band recorded a jam. Again and again, though it is Farrugia’s vocals on this album that sets Oslow apart from the rest of the herd. Whether it be the wailing vocals on Nothing Yet that really cement that post-punk sound, the drawn out clean vocals and mild screams on Deer In The Works or the pained screams on Straight Through this is a frontman that understands the emotions behind the track and knows only too well how to transfer them across to the audience.
At the end of the day though this is an album that is must if you want to discover a great, new, talented band. This band is a gem and even slowed down tracks like Black Light and Wide Eyes are thought-provoking enough to hold the listener’s attention.
Oslow is a fantastic album that more than shows that this is a band with great promise. If they head out to a city near you to play soon make sure you and go and see them because these tracks are going to be amazing live.
4 Stars
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTtQxDUhHY0]
