OCOAI: The Electric Hand

Hailing from Tennessee, the 5-piece instrumental band OCOAI have been called a number of things, such as "post rock", "doom metal", and "Pink Floyd killing a dinosaur" (that's a good one). Suffice it to say that nobody has a clue what to call them, and that is very much to their advantage. The Electric Hand, their sophomore album is going to further perplex those that feel the need to put language before music. Cool summer days, barren wastelands, deep oceanic rumbles, heavenly highs, moments of absolute elation, and decades of despair are all to be found in the images conjured up by this album.

'Waking Fear' opens softly with a clean, delayed guitar and a mournful cello line, the sombre melancholic melody of cello bringing a certain colour to the composition that emerges time and again throughout the album. Suddenly overthrown by a wall of chaos, the war-like sounds wipe the slate clean for the closing clean guitar chord that rings out over the sound of a train gunning into the distance. One minute into 'Niveus Hills' and the album is lifted skyward with colossal cymbal-drenched chords, the wave crashing into a heavy groove riff that is as forceful as it is majestic. The lead work of the thirteen minute 'Grimpeur' throughout this track is breath-taking. Utterly beautiful, it's straight out of the David Gilmour book on melodic texture and blues feel. Opening with a beautiful acoustic guitar piece counterpointed with a melancholic cello melody and a slide guitar line that drifts through the reverberant breeze. Epic in structure and featuring suitably grand Yes-styled crescendos and lavish landscapes as broad as the horizon is deep, this is a magnificent and majestic instrumental. 'Somnium' toys with eastern scales and ambience, blending in elements of Pink Floyd's synth experimentation similar to 1975's 'Welcome to the Machine' and almost acts as an introduction to the heavy riff-driven piece 'La Main d'Electrique' that is similar in muscular rage to Pink Floyd's 'One Of These Days', the hard-hitting slide guitar melody played over the organ-heavy coda is laden with prog-rock grandeur. 'Marchand de Sommeil' slows the pace down and warms the atmosphere a little with its open expanse and gentle guitar melody that is soon lifted into more passionate skies, the blues-infused melody weeps over an emotive rollercoaster of a piece. The dirty bass, thumping drums and the eastern scales in the coda are particularly outstanding. 'Marchand de Sommeil' is a masterful piece on a par with the aforementioned 'Grimpeur'. And 'Morte Audaciter', in its solitary, mournful melancholy, is a beautifully vast and vacant track that closes the album with a sense of empty futility.

The Electric Hand is an overwhelming album made up of intelligent and emotionally charged compositions. With not a word said, OCOAI have delivered an instrumental album that is breath-taking in its ability to capture and conjure a range of sonic images that are at once absorbing and cathartic. Highly recommended.

Track Listing

1. Waking Fear
2. Niveus Hills
3. Somnium
4. Grimpeur
5. La Main d'Electrique
6. Morte Audaciter
7. Marchand de Sommeil

Added: August 5th 2011
Reviewer: Jason Guest
Score:
Related Link: Band MySpace
Hits: 3208
Language: english

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