ALBUM REVIEW: One – OU

Progressive music at its core should be innovative. While as a genre there have inevitably arisen some tropes that people expect, and many follow those as a paint-by-numbers template, that’s not the case with OU and their debut full-length one. A vibrant, off kilter mix of songs, this is a sweep of colour right outside the lines.

You’re not given much time to acclimatise to OU if you’ve not heard any of the singles so far. It’s a very unique sound, driven by heavy electronics and interjected by high choral voices that pull an unconventional melody, especially in opener Travel. The origins of the band come from drummer and songwriter Anthony Vanacore, and it’s evident that rhythm is paramount to the way that music is approached in this record. Tight paradiddle rudiments and irregular signatures are aplenty, and top class musicianship is at the heart of this verifiably odd music. Lynn Wu lends her equally captivating and off-kilter vocals to create an ethereal and natural quality to the heavily electronic sound.

Mountain is the stand out track on the record, incorporating almost jazz-inspired melodies with a duality between major and minor that almost borders on unlistenable and breaks out into sudden djent grooves. While there’s no real comparison to this record, the easiest way to describe this would be if DEVIN TOWNSEND decided to collaborate with KNOWER. Glossy and poppy in places, extreme and dense in others, but consistently full of colour and life.

While Farewell and Prejudice have a much more conventionally progressive sound, with DREAM THEATER style progressions and snappy changes, the way the vocals interact with the dense rhythms is integral. This is not going to be a progressive record for everyone, and not for every fan of progressive music either, but it’s deftly navigated and creates a space all of its own in a world oversaturated by copycats; there’s nothing else that sounds like this record.

The structure of the record as a whole is well thought out. The respite of Ghost and Euphoria at the midway point brings out a calming appreciation for how the band can play with dynamics. It’s the sort of avant-garde that IMOGEN HEAP, SIGUR ROS and BJORK would appreciate – not at all commonplace composition, and in many ways pretty freeform and abstract, but cinematic ambience that leans into the strange and lush. While the first half of the record is much more verbose, the second has a sprightly nature, allowing for more space and looser dynamic changes. This doesn’t in any way mean that the intensity lessens, but there’s more space for smaller moments, moments that take less of a full on approach, that tip-toe back in and out to give you a more active listening experience.

Dark again falls into a very jazz-inspired middle section, and overlays on a constant and pretty tricky rhythm on the drums with expert level subversion of expectations. When it circles around to a full metal groove and out-of-this-world expanding, droning and off key playing in the final moments, it’s an odd experience to say the least. The antithesis to this is of course the final track, Light. Still very much a work of abstract music, the vocal harmonies are at the forefront of the track while the tempered instruments only sporadically contribute.

Harmonies and rhythms are the main course of this record, with the embellishing flavours of the melodic playing and extravagant tones all adding to the deliciousness of it all. This won’t be to all tastes, but there’s no denying how much talent is on show here. This is the sort of far out progressive music that’s only for a very specific audience, but the effusive playing on one will mesmerise some. OU have started out with a bold set of songs on this record, and with an album this confident and varied, they have certainly carved themselves a very niche corner in the music world.

Rating: 7/10

one is set for release on May 6th via InsideOut Music.

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