Echoes From An Ocean - Stories

Hear The Track Here

At this moment in time my review list is composed from several different strands; as always the bulk of the tracks come from Soundclick, five more from MP3 Unsigned and a further five from POPspace. That usually give me enough of a variety that it doesn't become stale. However, over the last six months, my RebelRiffs blog has started to kick in review requests too - on average around five a month. It means, of course, that I am doing a lot more reviews that I ever envisaged but - at the same time - the RebelRiffs blog has introduced me to artist who do not belong to any of my main sites but have also proved to be of much interest. No doubt that some of these artists will be featurting in my year end review around the turn of the year. Echoes From An Ocean, as you may have gathered, is one of the requests from the blog.

Although the music on the EFAO is actually a one man band (Roger Damen to be precise) there is apparently a live version in the works too. Now I don't know about the rest of you guys but just hearing the word Manchester associated with music and I get a million bells ringing all the way from The Hollies to Oasis. There is no question whatsoever that Manchester has its own particular sound. Sure it can vary a bit but you can bet that certain influences will permeate any track out of that city. There will be guitars, and usually lots of them. There will be vocals ranging from Liam's style through Ian Curtis and seminal Mancunian bands such as The Buzzcocks. I mention The Buzzcocks because the vocal on Stories is very Pete Shelley like.

That is not a bad thing.

The funny thing is that the track sounds as if it were recorded live, directly off the mixing board. I've been around this scene too long not to recognise that boominess. So the question is, is it live? The reason I bring this up is because it does create an enormous fuzziness as far as the musical track is concerned and that is shame because it does detract from the impact of the track. For sure, I reckon if this track was recorded properly, it would lift yer fekkin roof off. For my money, that lack makes the track - for all its energy and drive - a so so listen. You know you are listening to something that is pretty decent but its full impact is definitely missing. IMHO this is a track that screams out to be properly produced, and maybe Roger should think about that. Or maybe I'm just talking bollocks again.

Listenable Manchester pop/rock. Recommended for the energy.