ODi - Something Missing, EP review

Nothing Missing Musically

The title track from this EP release is a bluesy, electric gem, Claire Odlum in a smouldering vocal that belies the usual sweeter [a relative term] folkish voice – indeed there seems to be a fine-wine maturity from previous, honed by experience and touring since I last saw and listened.

Dave Redfearn provides the hint only of harmony here, though in the following three, ODi’s signature harmonising excellence is evident – this immediate on second track Set a Prayer, which as a live and acoustic track captures them as I fondly recall and have written about previously here. This is an assured performing, and a simple but affecting song.

Third The Escape Artist has more sweet and tight harmonising, sustained across the rise and fall of its melody, a finger-picked guitar all of the underpin needed for such fine singing and songcraft. Closer Don’t Drag Your Heels is a ‘demo’ but again for me retains that welcome simplicity of stripped-back performance, the guitar work excellent and the harmonising on its chorus quite beautiful.

Other contributions on this EP are from Sean O'Leary, Mike Odlum and Andy Hawkins, and as a taster of what is to come, I am looking forward. You can get here, and I do recommend.

The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger - GOASTT Stories, EP review

Delightful Package

More psyche-delight from the delightful Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl who as The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger revamp and re-present early Pink Floyd/The Beatles and all similar, which is usually just far-out, and at times exquisitely beautiful like the third of the four tracks on this ep Pierotte with its complex harmonies, acoustic guitar, harmonium and other psychedelic sounds of backwards-played fuzz. Closer Richard Brown is a piece of playfulness reminiscent of a time when such was a requisite on an album.

I reviewed GOASTT's album Midnight Sun here.

Sam Piper - Lucid Dreaming, EP review

Acoustic Narrative

In reviewing Southwest/Exeter band Witterquick recently I referenced some of the members’ previous incarnation [not all from this], the band Electric Skies. Another former member Sam Piper is also carrying on to make an impact musically, and whilst he continues to rock in a band [The Delta Sound, and The Mocking Birds: I can’t keep up with the breadth, but I also reviewed him live here], it is his acoustic EP Lucid Dreaming – available to hear on soundcloud – I will review.

There are four unadorned, acoustic tracks and they play a delicate linear narrative. What I mean is the pitch is controlled by a thoughtful, perhaps introspective range rather than seeking to push and shove. Or I could just reiterate it is acoustic. First track Give Me a Reason is a slow finger-plucked song riding its open vista on a hushed but clear lyrical warning about being ‘justified’, the soft supporting female vocal and background synth a perfect tandem. Second My Saint has a similar refrained lyrical assertion ‘show them you’re a fighter’, and a strummed guitar raises the rhythm slightly, but sustains that calm control. Third Bright Lights, Big City, reviewed in the live gig, is a bluesy ballad with more subtle guitar plucking. Closer Someday furthers the subdued but ultimately affecting tone because that pitch has been so consistently fine in its construction and performance. Here, the solo chord sequence a third of the way in is beautifully simple, and the rising close with the attending female vocal support draws the four songs to a coherent whole. A delicate whole.