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Charles The Osprey

Consider

Written by: PP on 14/10/2010 04:02:44

If you fail to see the point in all instrumental bands, you can safely skip this review with the backthought of knowing that Charles The Osprey are almost certainly not a band for you. Osprey, by the way, is a large harmless hawk found worldwide that feeds on fish and builds a bulky nest according to my dictionary. It's a weird name for a band, though an oddly descriptive one as they are so keen in experimenting with strange sounds and setups within their brand of mathy instrumental rock. "Consider" is their debut album, their shout out of "hey! we're here" to the world, and it positions itself nicely right at the halfway point between light math rockers This Town Needs Guns and the heavier instrumental rock of Don Caballero.

What that means in practice is that the guitars are jangly, spazzed out, often leaning on elements from jazz to get their point across. Heavily experimental, in other words, and often noisy and distorted. But what it also means is that when they go This Town Needs Guns mode, they morph into lightly fluctuating, playful sections of pure technical showcase in post-rock. It's in the latter department that Charles The Osprey succeed in keeping my interest, whereas in the more experimental and heavier sections, they lose coherency and it all becomes a giant mess of noise rock. Don't get me wrong, noise rock can be very good as shown by countless bands in the past, but here it simply doesn't work, especially given the complete absence of vocals. The two styles are given roughly equal time to flourish, but that's also "Consider"'s biggest problem. It's just way, way, way too long-winded. After 12 tracks of lengthy, four to five minute instrumental only tracks, you'll begin to feel consumed by the band's emphasis on sounding strange, light, heavy, noisy, mathy or all of the above at the same time. Furthermore, when your closest peers are Don Caballero and This Town Needs Guns, it doesn't take more than just a few flaws in sound to pale in comparison. And that, my friends, is what Charles The Osprey do on "Consider", despite it being a decent record.

Download: Scimitar Children And Their Rugs
For the fans of: Don Caballero, This Town Needs Guns, Hella
Listen: Myspace

Release date 29.06.2010
Friction Records