Electric Woodland

Potrero

Written by: BV on 30/12/2013 21:24:56

Electric Woodland hails from various places in Norway as far as I understand. Having initially started the band out of ‘necessity’ as the members were organizing a festival called Runerock which was apparently in need of another act, the band has since moved on to focus quite a bit on writing original material and playing gigs at other places than Runerock. This album, “Potrero”, is their debut full-length – so let’s have a look at it, shall we?

As the album opens with “Heavy Eyes”, the stylistic direction of Electric Woodland is quite unmistakable. The band seems to rely heavily on low-key fuzzy grooves reminiscent of fairly standard blues rock melded with a slightly psychedelic and garage-tinted edge – think something like The Black Keys and you won’t be totally off. - Interestingly enough though, their soundscape doesn’t seem quite as massive as it has the potential to actually be. Don’t get me wrong, this first track is quite groovy and has quite the fuzzy low-end to it, I just happen to believe there could be more to it.

Then again, as the album progresses into “Leaving the Lair” I seem to be getting exactly the heavy foundation I’ve been yearning for. With my headphones on, the low-end onslaught nearly seems too much as it practically fills up my ears with tasty bass. The droning mood of the track does leave the melodic side to seem quite unfulfilled, save for the sporadic ‘solo’ bits and lead lines and the soulful vocal work. As such, it seems that Electric Woodland have yet to master the dynamics of their sound to really craft an entirely brilliant listening experience. With “Humbread”, this impression seems to be enforced as the otherwise quite upbeat and relatively groovy track really needs some sort of hook for it to really take off instead of just droning on to become ‘yet another blues-track’ to my ears. It’s a shame really and a point I hope they really do master soon, because with a tasty sound like this, it seems like a waste to let it falter in the shadow of a lacking mastery of the dynamics that could potentially make this band come off near-fantastic.

For now though, I’ll just have to remark that “Potrero” is an interesting insight into a developing band that has already crafted an interesting sound – now they just need to make it utterly enthralling by adding that last secret spice to the mix. One thing is for sure, you can bet your ass I’ll be looking forward to it.

Download: Leaving the Lair, Heavy Eyes
For the fans of: The Black Keys, Lost Souls Carnival, Wolfmother
Listen: Facebook

Release date 22.11.2013
Self-released


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