You might remember seeing a meme about a band announcing a world tour. The funny bit was that their “world tour” had dates mostly in the US and Western Europe, while the whole of the Asian continent, as well as other parts of the world, were decorated with a big fat “NO”. I liked that meme a lot, because it was spot on. The majority of the people living in Western countries, just as bands from these countries, no matter how progressive they imagine themselves to be, think of the world as the Western world. The Ocean Collective is one of the rare exceptions to that rule. They do not shy away from places other bands would consider exotic. That’s one of the things I like about them, something I respect them for. Last year, for example, their tour took them to Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan among other places.
Having accompanied bands on tour, I know how problematic and difficult it is to do shows in places that don’t have the necessary infrastructure, can’t guarantee sufficient turnout, offer low-quality food and bad accommodation. But sometimes you just have to take a risk and give people a chance. Whatever the outcome, you’ll at least have interesting stories to tell. And I imagine that all those stories and experiences are a stress test for the band, that they ideally make them grow together and also enrich and expand their music as well as the band members’ minds.
Listening to Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic, The Ocean’s new album, one of the first things you will realize is that the band have expanded the scope of their sound. The music is in wide stretches less heavy than on earlier releases. It is also less stringent, less compact. However, at the same time, the compositions are more inclusive; a wider variety of musical styles and genres can be heard.
The broadening of the scope is evident in the performance of all band members. There are drumming parts that would go well with all of the following: lounge jazz, punk rock, hardcore, death and black metal. The vocals are similarly versatile, ranging from clean singing to a throatier style, but also to black metal screeching and a singsong performance often heard in music from the Middle-East. The influence of the latter can also be heard in other parts of the album on multiple occasions.
In addition to all of the above, Phanerozoic II will surprise you with the inclusion of brass instruments. And one of the album’s highlights are certainly the beautiful cello parts on the final track, Holocene, conveying a special kind of Weltschmerz.
Thematically, Phanerozoic II is a continuation and the second part to the band’s last album, Phanerozoic I. The Phanerozoic is the current geological eon, the eon featuring complex life forms in abundance, but also the eon which faced multiple mass extinction events. The looming threat of such an event by forces that out of our control, like a planetary collision, or man-made, like climate change, runs like a red thread through all tracks of Phanerozoic II and its accompanying visual material.
The three pre-released tracks, Jurassic|Cretaceous, Oligocene and Pleistocene, are well chosen audio samples if you want to get an idea of the album’s musical scope. In addition, there are outstanding videos available to every one of those tracks, all worthy of your attention.
An absolute must hear is Jurassic|Cretaceous featuring Jonas Renske of Katatonia. This 13-minute monster is the album’s central, most complex and most spectacular composition. Tool definitely comes to mind, but this has a stronger experimental streak and I don’t recall Tool ever incorporating brass instruments into their music. Since you can’t go to shows at the moment, you might as well watch the drum playthrough available for Jurassic|Cretaceous and see some drumming wizardry.
Oligocene is a calm-inducing, but also cold and sober electronica-heavy instrumental. The video to the track features black and white imagery of the ruins of a Soviet observatory and research station for cosmic radiation. The band came by the eery site in the Aragats mountains in Armenia by accident during their Siberian Traps tour last year.
Finally, Pleistocene, referencing the geological era that included the last ice age, has The Ocean going black metal if only for a short passage of the song. The video to the track tells a story all on its own and has some scary, very memorable and goose bumps inducing moments.
To summarize: The Ocean’s new album Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic features some classic Ocean tracks, but also shows the band vastly expanding their sound. This might leave some fans behind while simultaneously winning over new ones. To enjoy the band’s new album, you will therefore need some tolerance for experimentation.
What’s next for The Ocean Collective? There really is no way to tell. Judging from Phanerozoic II it could be anything. The band have developed in a way, have come to a position, where all musical paths are open to them. That’s a huge achievement.
(8.5/10 Slavica)
Leave a Reply