The Flaming Bridges - Album Review: Fear and Loathing in Oamaru
Authentic, pared back, and captivating, The Flaming Bridges’ new album Fear and Loathing in Oamaru in an incredibly captivating collection of folk songs and stories. This album expertly flips between songs where the focal point of the songs are simply
the voice of Matthew P Schobs and layered guitar and complex instrumental landscapes.
The album opens on an instrumental piece called The First Dream. This short song is a beautiful introduction hinting at an expansive sound to the album, featuring soft pedal notes, and a guitar reminiscent of the work of Gustavo Santaolalla. This feeling and mood is continued into the first few songs on the album, particularly Sand, another instrumental piece. I really enjoyed the production on Sand, the layering of effects and textures created a dynamic soundscape leading into the softer When I Dream in Technicolour (Part 1) For HRK. The name is fitting, as this piece is reminiscent of some of the later Beatles work if they had turned folk due to the panned and delayed dreamy vocals.
The production on this album is definitely to be appreciated, I loved what seemed to be the, at least to my ear, reversed guitar audio in the background of another instrumental piece What She Said. My favourite of this collection was Water. I found it combined the expansiveness of their dynamic instrumental pieces with the more singer/songwriter songs, and I would really love to see some further experimentation with combining the two sounds.
This album is perfect if you are a fan of the greats, and classic folk music.
Fear and Loathing in Oamaru was created in association with Pale Morning Records
About The Flaming Bridges
Split between two instrumentals and three vocal pieces Water/Sand opens with the beautifully expansive sounding Water, which blends a mixture of narration and dream-like vocals, the evocative nature of the instrumentation shimmering like the tracks namesake title.
Stripped of its vocals Water and alongside instrumental Sand, Schobs displays his talent for multi instrumentation and a potential future sound-tracking films, both tracks cast a luminescent filmic spell.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for The Flaming Bridges
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