The Owl - Silver Lines EP

Labels: Self-Released

Formats: Digital

Release Date: 24 May 2023

Tracklist:

1. Drop

2. Distort

3. Fatal Orbit

4. Back Up Plan

It's been a long time since I've featured anything by The Owl. It hasn't been on purpose, I'm just way over my head again in terms of regular posts etc. Before I get into this release I want to pay tribute to the fact that The Owl's main protagonist made it to 1000 days sober (if I remember correctly). Silver Lines is supposed to be an amalgamation of electronica, synth, breakbeat and more. Not what's usually covered here but The Owl holds a special place in my heart.

A bit of a voyage into the unknown for me this, but after reading The Owl’s story about what happened to the laptop that was destined to be used for a gig the same night, I felt compelled to listen to the release that’s cover bares the picture of the resulting damage. Silver Lines is an amalgamation of synth, electronica and breakbeat (I didn't just steal that sentence from my opening paragraph I swear!). A bit at odds with The Owl’s noisier/heavier output but really enjoyable at the same time. Opener ‘Drop’ is a pretty laid back affair, which bleeps and pulses through just over four minutes. It’s repetitive nature is really entrancing.

‘Distort’ is really aptly named given where The Owl’s roots come from in terms of heavy/fast music. The song itself however, ins’t so much heavy as it is glitchy and somewhat trippy. The breakbeat comes to the front, definitely distorting the melodies that flow in and out. The percussive side of Silver Lines takes centre stage on ‘Fatal Orbit’, moving further away from the hypnotic nature of the EP’s opening song and instead choosing to bewilder you with off-kilter beats and melodies. It’s a great piece of improv music (if indeed it is improvisational).

EP closer ‘Back Up Plan’ makes use of synths that sound a lot more analog and organic, that sit on top of beats, providing a relaxed and soothing ending. Harsh noise has always been a tough sell for me weirdly, given my love of powerviolence and noise-rock, so hearing an artist produce an EP as varied and enjoyable as this is a big plus. Maybe I should delve deeper into this musical realm.

Sonic joy is few and far between for my right now. The daily churn of work and decompressing after work has left me feeling quite lethargic. Thankfully, Silver Lines doesn’t require a huge amount of energy and instead rewards you via soothing tones.

You can stream and purchase Silver Lines digitally below:-

The Owl - https://www.facebook.com/theowlsounds

The Owl - A Trip Inside The Museum

Labels: Self-Released

Formats: Digital

Release Date: 26 Apr 2022

Tracklist:

1. The Repurposing Of A Cerebral Purging

2. The Morning After A Psychedelic Experience

3. The Asylum For Augmenting Thought

It have been far too long since I last featured any musical creations by The Owl here, which is completely my fault. I have dabbled in noise/ambient music before and The Owl has always been one such project that's held my attention, but the ever increasing push/pull of life and my overflowing inbox have meant that I've taken my eye off the ball. That was until I saw the cover of A Trip Inside The Museum. It's psychedelic imagery layer over the top of what look like brain scans had me intrigued.

This three song release pays homage to a fellow noise/experimental project that goes by the name of The Museum Of Viral Memory. The Owl contributed two songs to the project that were reimagined with the help of a symphony orchestra, which both feature in their original form here alongside a remix of a track originally by The Museum Of Viral Memory themselves. I know very little about the latter but I know what The Owl is capable of, so without further ado let's dive in.

First up, ‘The Repurposing Of A Cerebral Purging’ is as weird as The Owl describes it to be in the accompanying bandcamp notes. Looping, oddly rhythmic glitchy noises that become more hypnotising and unnerving as they go. The alterations between the different passages here are what makes it such an interesting listen for me, even though musically it’s harsh. I don’t feel that these words can do full justice to this thirteen minute song; however, I’ve always respected The Owl hugely as a musician and the creativity on show throughout all of the project’s releases (of which there are many now) stands out.

Second song ‘The Morning After A Psychedelic Experience’ is a much more low-key affair, featuring what sounds like field recordings of nature interspersed with more weird noises. A lot gentler in approach with the harsh noise dialled down, it shows a more sensitive/ambient side to The Owl. It’s the perfect backdrop for a nocturnal walk through forests or over moors. The accompanying spoken word sample adds extra mystique to the song as well.

The Owl’s final song here is called ‘The Asylum For Augmenting Thought’ and is a remix of the song ‘Refuge’ by The Museum Of Viral Memory. If any of you have checked out The Owl’s previous remixes, like the Oathbreaker ‘Ease Me’ or Aubzagl ‘Eilifa Kuldinn’ ones, you’ll know that you’re in for a journey. Most people think of remixes as digitally stitched together, beat-matched tracks but The Owl replaces those techniques with images that move from their brain to the recording, in turn creating collages of sound that sit perfectly alongside the orchestral sounds of The Museum Of Viral Memory.

This release is adventurous and enjoyable. If you’re only just finding your feet in the realm of abstract, noisy, experimental music, there’s plenty for you to take in here. It’s a really creative body of work and it must have struck a chord because my neighbours appear to be howling like wolves in appreciation/competitiveness  (delete as applicable), or maybe because they’re drunk.

You can stream and purchase A Trip Inside The Museum as a name-your-price download below:-

The Owl - https://www.facebook.com/theowlsounds

The Owl & Dan Clarke - Improv Collab Pt.1

Labels: Self-Released

Formats: Digital

Release Date: 02 Nov 2021

Tracklist:

1. The First Euphoric Mammoth

2. From Silence Into A Stupendous Trek

3. Mentally Conjoined Peacefully Warped

4. This Twisted Terrain To Trounce

5. Marching To The Castle

6. If Mountains Had Legs

7. Checking The Guidelines

8. Ecstatic Vision Enablers

9. Crumbling Planets

I apologise for the inactivity over the last week. Things have been a bit weird and those around me have been struggling a bit, especially in work life. it kind of feels like as the seasons have changed and the clocks have gone back, people I know and work with have got sick and in one case, worse. It also meant that I had to miss the farewell gig of my good (but sadly distant) friend Paul, before he jets off to Czechia.

About a week or so ago he sent this collaborative release that he'd recorded with drummer Dan Clarke, one of his longtime friends and musical collaborators. It was recorded at Eiger Studios, Leeds (I have some great memories of noisy shows there!) back in June and it's been tweaked and twisted to form this nine-song release. 

It feels like very much the right time to be listening to this release, albeit a little later than planned. Completely improvisational and recorded on one mic, you can’t get more organic in musical terms. Even with The Owl’s post-recording manipulations, it still sounds and feels eerily like it was meant to be. Album opener ‘The First Euphoric Mammoth’ is a swirling collage of bass and drums that fade in and out amongst layers of organ, and other ambient touches. Dan Clarke is a member of Sloth Hammer and if you’ve witnessed one of their shows before, you’ll know that they’re anything but normal. He brings a part of that band along with him here. Add to that the use of some bizarre electronic effects and you have something totally unclassifiable.

One thing’s for sure with The Owl, the song titles always seem to be spot on with the music as ‘From Silence Into A Stupendous Trek’ illustrates. The song that bears that moniker stretches out for over fifteen minutes, which in musical terms is a stupendous trek! Very doom-laden and sludgy, it’s not gonna get your pulse racing a mile a minute, yet it will reach you in different ways. Ways that will see you painting pictures with your mind. 

From here the songs become shorter but no less enthralling. The brilliantly named ‘Mentally Conjoined Peacefully Warped’ aptly describes the minds at play here. Despite it’s short running time, there’s still something truly harrowing about it and I’ll never get used to the interjections of weird electronic mayhem. Talking of weird electronic mayhem, you might want to replay the intro to ‘This Twisted Terrain To Trounce’ over and over again. It’s followed by noise that’s a lot simpler for the most part, but you’re never too far from strange internet (maybe cosmic) sounds.

Improv Collab Pt.1 is definitely a release that you can listen to all the way through. I’m not sure if that was fully intended but it works out that way. Even if you’re not a fan of instrumental noise, this isn’t harsh and is way more musical. The winding, knuckle-dragging tempos of ‘Marching To The Castle’ plough a somewhat depressing furrow yet you’ll struggle to stop listening.

Things are no brighter on ‘If Mountains Had Legs’, which veers towards The Owl’s sludgier side again, kind of sounding like a weirder version of Meth Drinker (at least in my head anyway). The drumming once again works a treat and the randomly placed electronics stop you from drifting off to another plane. ‘Checking The Guidelines’ is the shortest but also probably the most intense song on the album, at least percussion-wise anyway. The beats and additional effects give it a weird drum n bass feel, with plenty of glitches too.

It’s left to penultimate song ‘Ecstatic Vision Enablers’ to truly scare you with menacing noises that seem to come from all directions. It reminds me of the ‘Kin Hell Fest gig at Temple Works in Leeds back in 2013 where I witnessed Sloth Hammer and their ace live show for the first time. I specifically remember the random piano they found and the noise/electronic oddities they perched on it. Oh and the member in the pig mask walking through the crowd hitting a drum. Good times. 

The album’s closer ‘Crumbling Planets’ seems to follow on directly from ‘Ecstatic Vision Enablers’ musically, albeit with a significantly slower tempo from the bass. It’s a really cool way to end what has been a real journey. I’m not embarrassed to say that it took me two sittings to be able to right this review, which isn’t normal for me. That said, it’s the kind of improv/experimental noise that I like the most. Even with the electronic manipulation, it’s still got a warm organic feel that you only get from instrumentation and human interaction.

Clearly this has been a labour of love and one that lives long in the memory. Perfect for these darker nights and colder outlooks. It’s made me forget that I was feeling down when I started writing. I’m now more reflective and upbeat. Music does strange things to a person. 

I implore you to give this release your full attention, as it demands it. You can listen below via The Owl's bandcamp page, where it's available as a name-your-price download:-

The Owl - https://www.facebook.com/theowlsounds

The Owl - Beyond The Vastness Of Infinity

Labels: Self-Released

Formats - CD (hopefully)/Digital

Release Date: 02 Jul 2021

Tracklist:

1. Paracosmic Expansion

2. Luminous Stellar Explosions

3. Transcending New Heights

4. Hymn For Laniakea

5. Pōwehi

I've spent part of this morning putting together a small review schedule for the coming week, which will hopefully grow a bit bigger in time for my up-coming week off in mid-June. Also, I'm due to have my first Covid jab next Saturday, so depending on side-effects I might not be heading out as much, which should give me more time to write. It's time to focus on the task in hand through and this soon-to-be-released record from the ever-prolific noisemaker The Owl. Beyond The Vastness of Infinity will be self-released by The Owl in July and it continues the momentum built by previous releases Odyssey One, Hibernation and Further Into The Vastness. This time you're treated to five live and improvisational bass jams with the entity's usual layered effects and drone/doom forays. 

Starting with a spoken word sample featuring Alan Watts, it doesn’t take you long to realise what mood The Owl is trying to portray here. ‘Paracosmic Expansion’ is a simple yet mind-expanding opener thanks to that sampled speech and your senses are indeed awoken by the rumbling bass, and subtle ambience present.

From there you’re immediately shocked into life by ‘Luminous Stellar Explosions’, which is where the improvised bass really takes over. Encased in white-noise/feedback that buzzes alongside it, the hypnotic elements of the song begin to open up. When that noise dissipates later on, you’re left feeling calmer though noisier heights are just around the corner and sure enough, the loud/quiet/loud dynamic comes full-circle and the volume level increases. It’s worth noting that there is no percussion on this release (I hope that’s correct), so any rhythms that can be heard come directly from the bass.

Momentum continues to be strong on this release because each song flows Into the next without a pause. ‘Transcending New Heights’ is the longest song here at over nine minutes; however, compared to ‘Luminous Stellar Explosions’ before it, it’s a lot calmer and meditative. Once again low rumbling bass is the backbone and branching off it is very subtle, sometimes distant melody. Not even my neighbour (annoyingly) drilling or planing in their flat can detract from my listening pleasure.

Penultimate song ‘Hymn Of Laniakea’ begins very quietly indeed before bursting into life with another shock of crashing bass guitar. You can hear the live sound of this release more clearly here than anywhere else and it definitely adds to the album’s organic charm and feel. We all have creativity within us, but some people are better at using it than others. The Owl’s productivity and vision is a prime example of that (now, will there ever be a full collaborative release with Oathbreaker I wonder?!).

Finally, album closer Pōwehi is a throbbing, rhythmic beast that’s filled with short waves of sound that increase and decrease in very quick succession, leading to a low-end collage of maddening sounds, glitches and just generally hellish bass. This album for me sits in between both the light/ambient and harsh noise ends of the genre spectrum, so if you’re new to this type of music then hopefully you’ll find this to be a good route in. The balance of both of those dynamics make it a really enjoyable listen.

Keep you eyes peeled for news on the release of Beyond The Vastness Of Infinity via The Owl's social media page here - https://www.facebook.com/theowl

Also, make sure you go to The Owl's bandcamp page, where you can listen to all of the band's releases to date and new ones as they are released - https://theowl.bandcamp.com/

The Owl - Odyssey One

Labels: Self-Released

Formats: None Yet

Release Date: Unreleased

Tracklist:

1. Ascend (And Keep Going)

2. Descend (The Rise Again)

I've been spending the last few days (as many of you have) with family. That time has allowed me to reset and also to get a couple of things done. At the time of writing this, there have already been 120 reviews published on the blog this year. Not the most that's ever been published, but I'm proud nonetheless. I'm also in the process of working out how many individual bands I've reviewed since the blog began. A large task that I've almost completed.

Aside from all of that though, the urge to finish of 2020 with one review (or maybe two by the time New Year's Eve hits) was too much, so here I am writing about something that hasn't even officially been released yet (that's scheduled for January all being well). It comes from Leeds based entity The Owl and it was sent to me in the form of a promo CD when I ordered the latest DIY release from OwlRipper Productions, containing two doom songs. Rumour has it that this release may become part of a wider series from the band in the future as well. 

As you may know, The Owl is a solo-project and a pretty prolific one at that. Odyssey One sees the project venturing into the desolate realms of doom metal via noise and percussion. Being a more than proficient bass player helps The Owl build the sometimes harrowing soundscapes that sit within it’s music and that description is accurate on this EP’s first song ‘Ascend (And Keep Going)’. This isn’t your groovy, friendly, melodic type of doom metal. Instead it’s the noisy and nightmarish kind, championed by the likes of Primitive Man, Meth Drinker (RIP) and Sunn0))) minus the vocals. Those are all fairly predictable comparisons if you know me but given the low-end heft and sheer length of the song, I stand by them. Talking of the song length, nearly eighteen minutes is definitely enough time for you to get truly lost in it and if like me, you’re waiting for the supposed snow that’s due to fall later tonight it’s the perfect way to get in the mood.

Second song ‘Descend (The Rise Again)’ is considerably shorter but even weirder thanks to the addition of vocoder-style spoken word at it’s beginning that leads the way to what becomes several layers of building, haunting doom/noise. You think the volume’s just gonna keep rising but alas, it settles before itself descending. Very subtle treble nestles within the feedback here and as quickly as the song started, it ends. I didn’t want to end this paragraph so abruptly so in synopsis, this little EP is a very promising sign of things to come from The Owl and if it indeed does go onto form part of a series of similar releases, I for one will be waiting in anticipation. This project is one that’s screaming out for all kinds of collaborations, so hopefully that will become a thing when the world’s not as crazy as it is now. Until then, bury yourself in The Owl’s myriad of sonic offerings and await further news on the release on Odyssey One.

A short teaser for the release can be found below:-

You can stream and download the rest of The Owl's catalogue here - https://theowl.bandcamp.com/.

The Owl - https://www.facebook.com/theowlsounds