Charlie And The Oscillator formed in 2018 as two DJ’s and fuse breakbeats, synths, and samples to create eccentric alternative electronic dance. They are attuned to twisting and bending sounds into their own distinctive style using a vast collection of vinyl and analogue equipment and have been compared to DJ Shadow and The Prodigy. Their debut album ‘Journey Of Echoes’ was released in 2020 and they released their last album ‘Musical Emergency Evacuation Kit’ last March. The band have expanded to a trio since their debut album with spoken word artist Shaun Rivers who previously collaborated with The Brian Jonestown Massacre joining.
The trio have a new five track EP `Here Comes The Oscillator!` to be released at the beginning of next month.
We are led into the latest extended play with `Day After Day After Day` and it`s a fairly trippy composition with the title repeated continually over a warped aural soundscape which becomes almost like a subliminal mantra.
Title track `Here Comes The Oscillator!` is a number that has a swaying vibrating vibe with an underlying beat that reminded me of the title music to most James Bond films. The number`s title is shared and repeated in a fashion similar to that of Jamaican dancehall artist Ini Kamoze on his 1995 hip hop reggae fusion hit `Here Comes The Hotstepper` but in more of a dance like electronic style. An oscillator being a device for generating oscillatory electric currents or voltages by non-mechanical means seems to offer visions of erratic dance moves through subliminal means.
`Hedonists Handbook` seems like a manual for one of life`s pleasure-seekers, a person who believes that the pursuit of pleasure is the most important thing in life. “I`m a Hedonist” is a constant shout out throughout as a
female vocal rings out in a kind of ecstasy in the background. A reflective musing that conveys a view on the excesses of life over a spellbinding musical under beat. A number that i`m sure would have gone down a storm in Manchester`s infamous Haçienda club. The sadly departed American jazz poet, singer, musician, and author Gil Scott-Heron`s released a satirical poem and song `The Revolution Will Not Be Televised` in 1971 and `Stocking Brew` appears to be a veiled tribute but updated to our current climate. It`s less political and much more personal as our protagonist shares a kind of `Day in his life` which visits his exploits including sexual references to oral sex with his partner/ conquest all shared with the entrancing egotism of a baggy-esque – Manc like bravado bluster
à la The Happy Mondays / Black Grape.
This five tracker concludes with `One To Come Up` which has a percussive beat with a yo yo intonation of “want to come up and want to come down” splayed over a mixture of influences and cultural references from the rap of House Of Pain like `Jump Around` to nursery rhyme tones to Kraftwerk and Daft Punk like vibes.
`Here comes The Oscillator!` is around twenty minutes of pure aural pleasure which really draws you in like a moth to a flame with its groovy earworms. Charlie And The Oscillator create eccentric alternative electronic dance music and vibes that will have you up and dancing despite any reservations or preconceptions that you arrive with. I said before that this trio would go down a storm at a festival and this EP only reinforces that belief.
Dig out your boogie shoes and allow Charlie to fire up The Oscillator.
Rating 9/10
REVIEW : CHARLIE AND THE OSCILLIATOR – HERE COMES THE OSCILLIATOR EP (2024)
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