7 Oct 2024
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The Flaming Bridges - Album Review: Fear and Loathing in Oamaru

07 Mar 2024 // A review by Catherine Bullock

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

Former member of BareBones and Cabaret / Matt Yearbook. Current member of Screw Jack and founding member of 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

Releases

Fear and Loathing In Oamaru
Year: 2024
Type: Album
Fear and Loathing in Oamaru
Year: 2023
Type: EP
Water/Sand
Year: 2021
Type: EP
Outlines
Year: 2020
Type: EP

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