Apologies for the slightly enforced break, we'll try to make it up this week with another wide range of releases, starting with another one which slipped in sometime last year, but which is definitely worth us belatedly covering.
Orsak:Oslo are an Oslo / Gothenburg based stoner / blues based instrumental band who have released a steady stream of EP's since they first appeared back in 2014 with 'Torggata Sway'. All their EP's are actually worth checking out, but their music has slowly evolved through to their latest release 'Tipping Point', which highlights far more psychedelic and even post rock influences, which is probably why I like it so much.
'Tipping Point' opens with '054 Brugata Blues', and the first thing that really stands out is simply the sound of the guitar, with a throbbing visceral intensity backed up by a gothic bass line which adds to the dark underlying tension. But then it opens up with a melodic guitar line that actually makes the whole thing really listenable, and the whole track is almost 8 minutes worth of great sounding fuzzy instrumental noise. The fun continues with '052 Tipping Point', just 6 minutes this time at a higher tempo, but again it's the sound of the guitar which really attracts me, and when the track launches into the main melodic themes some 4 1/2 minutes I feel a warm fuzzy glow enveloping me. '050 Crying for Sleep' feels like a Post Rock track when it opens, and at 8 minutes it's probably my favourite creation on the EP, with a melody that wanders off in a slightly different direction to that which I expect, and there's a dark mysterious undercurrent to the music, all created of course by that fuzzy guitar intensity.
There are so many good Scandinavian bands of this genre around at the moment, and we were seriously remiss in some of our coverage last year. But we are slowly getting our priorities right, and Orsak:Oslo demonstrate everything that is good about this style of music, a hypnotic intensity that carries the songs forward, an amazing guitar sound and of course big tunes, let us not forget the tunes. So please check out 'Tipping Point', it's a really great listen, and we promise to throw in some other similarly great sounds in the next few months.