Light breezy pop folk covers some darker thoughts.
Oh My Sun are a new London based duo consisting of songwriter/singer Carmondy and guitarist/producer Tal Janes and ‘Apocalypse Baby‘ is their debut release. The band’s name is a hippie-ish play on the commonly heard expression “oh my god”, reworked to put more emphasis on a non-deity image and to also hook into the pair’s interest in astrology. ‘Apocalypse Baby”s eight songs reveal a band of two shades, there’s the upbeat and light music of the four tracks on “side one” and then the musically harder-edged, or at least more pensive, offerings of “side two”. Not that there is actually much difference in song content from either approach – the album opener and first single ‘5 Pieces’ recalls ‘Saltbreakers‘ era Laura Veirs, and for all its light bounciness, is a recovering from a breakup song. ‘All I Can Do‘ is a funkier song of a seemingly contented drifting through life “all in our days / lying on a bubble floating past the sea / ain’t never been so high before” which perhaps has a less stable basis “it’s all I can do to love you / I’m holding onto the mess we made.” It’s a little like Native Harrow, which also means it is drawing in influences from the post-blues band version of Fleetwood Mac.
The musical similarity of the first few songs means that they do risk drifting by without pulling in all the attention they perhaps require – on the surface it sounds like the background soundtrack of a pleasant Summer. However, the title track sees a much needed injection of energy, as Carmody sings the praises of a newly born child whilst questioning the ethics of a new life brought into a world on the edge of ecological collapse and Tal Janes knocks the aggressiveness of the guitar part up a notch, it’s a nicely handled contrast between loving moments and an overwhelming concern for the future. Album closer ‘Friends In The Clouds‘ is a breathless folky meditation on the meaning of love, somewhat in the manner of a modernised Vashti Bunyan.
Rather than what might be many people’s idea of Americana (whatever that is), Oh My Sun’s music fits nicely into a modern folk idiom that draws its influences – or at least inspirations – from more recent “traditions”, it’s a sound that more commonly emerges from across the Atlantic and now we have it firmly embedded in London. Good.
