Oscar Charlie – Vandals
Words: Gareth O’Malley
My musical discovery of the week, Oscar Charlie, are based in the Shetland Isles. So I suppose you could say they’ve already come quite a long way on their musical journey. And as evinced by this absolute gem of a track, ‘Vandals’, they’re going to go a lot further. There’s a dark side to this synth-led track, in the lyrical content – there’s references to graveyards and violence in here (at least from what I can make out; the band – that’s Reuben Quinn (vocals, guitars), Jim Bevington (bass), John Gair (drums) and Jamie Miller (synths) – have done a fine job of obscuring the vocals by creating a gigantic wall of sound).The music provides a superb contrast: the track builds for three minutes before they decide to go all epic on us, and the guitars come crashing in as the song reaches its climax. An exhilarating four minutes, that has not, rather incredibly, gotten the nod for debut single. That honour is given to ‘The Do’s’, which is out January 18th via SubAudio Records. Things are just starting to get going for Oscar Charlie, and it will be truly Whiskey Tango Foxtrot-worthy if they haven’t picked up quite a following by the close of 2010. I’ll be keeping tabs on this lot, and I’d suggest you do the same.
MFM @ HYPEM
