Thomas Oliver is one extremely seriously talented bloke.
Thomas is perhaps slightly better known for the band that bears his name (The Thomas Oliver Band - who incidentally won the "iTunes Best Blues & Roots Album of 2011" award for their debut album Baby, I'll Play), but he is also an incredible player of the Weissenborn lap-slide guitar.
The Weissenborn is a brand of lap-slide guitar manufactured by Hermann Weissenborn in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, bought back into the public consciousness by Ben Harper.
This collection of suburb instrumentals is entitled Beneath The Weissenborn and is, by all accounts, the world's first full-length, all instrumental, all Weissenborn album.
Like so many projects, what started as a single instrumental became a collection for an EP, and blossomed into a full length record.
Despite some clever use of sound effects, and on the last bonus where there are other instruments and vocals used, the entire record is made using Weissenborns.
An album recorded purely on one instrument can quickly become monotonous but this is far from the case with this effort, as none of the tracks are overly long, or out stay their welcome as the haunting voice of the guitar resonates extraordinarily.
This is an extremely beautiful record, crafted on an extremely beautiful instrument with an extremely beautiful voice that Thomas Oliver should be extremely proud of and one that should be taken very seriously by fans of not just the Weissenborn lap steel guitar, but fans of good music all over the globe.
Thomas Oliver represents the openness of the mind and the heart, both as a musician and as a human. He touches people's lives in all corners of the globe as he draws a connection between various forms of music that could otherwise be considered polar opposites, and he invites people into an artistic perspective which is entirely unique. His warm demeanour and story-telling on stage are as much a part of his musical identity as his unmistakable falsetto-singing range or his world-renowned touch on the lap-slide guitar, or his celebrated vocal contributions to the genre of Drum & Bass music. Thomas Oliver is the epitome of the term, “one-of-a-kind”.
Produced in Berlin and released on March 6th, 2020, full-length album, The Brightest Light, is a colourful and dynamic journey through Soul, Roots, RnB and Folk, and Oliver's distinctive perspective on the world around him. The first single (released in October), Bulgarian Mountains, has captured the hearts of many, including the millions of Bulgarians who have seen any of the numerous pieces across the biggest television stations in the country, telling Thomas's story and the story behind the song, inspired by a chance meeting with a Bulgarian girl in Amsterdam named Martina.
Simultaneously, Thomas is one of the most celebrated vocalists in the genre of Drum & Bass, having released a massive 20 collaborations with some of the genre's finest producers, including Logistics, Hybrid Minds, Nu:Logic, Black Sun Empire, Urbandawn, Trei, Concord Dawn and Etherwood, and having been released on some of Drum & Bass's most prestigious labels, including Hospital Records, Metalheadz, Blackout and RAM Records.