“I feel I’m bound by expectations,” sings Oli Brown on “Goliath”, the second track here. Maybe he was. These days, though, he sounds like a man working very hard not to care what he is supposed to do.
By the end of the chorus he is taking a “leap into forever”, and Sam Wood and Wayne Procter are right behind him. That, really, is the point of The Dead Collective EP. This is not Oli Brown as blues prodigy, or even Oli Brown as anything you thought he might be. This is the sound of a band becoming something else entirely.
In a way, listening to this is like reading the book after seeing the film. MV went to watch The Dead Collective the other week and was staggered at just how good they were getting; how they were building, shifting, growing into this huge, strange, brilliant thing. The EP underlines it.
“Cracks” has hints of Jeff Buckley, perhaps, but the thing about this incarnation of Brown is that he has found a way to be completely original. There is a vastness to the sound, and the soaring chorus still manages to shock with its darkness. There are little bursts of energy too, like the song is lurking in the shadows before suddenly showing its teeth.
“Estranged” feels like experimentation without ever feeling forced. Not just in the catharsis of the words, but in the electronic drum sound in the verse, which contrasts beautifully with the lush chorus. This is music that exists in its textures as much as its hooks.
“Falling” is the longest thing here, and given that none of these songs are exactly short — the EP runs close to 25 minutes — that says something. There is urgency in the vocals, a sinister piano hook, and moments where the whole thing feels almost Tool-like in its tension and release.
And if the musicianship has taken until now to mention, it really should not have. Brown’s playing is superb throughout, but the key is that it never feels like showing off. It serves the songs, and that makes it even more impressive.
The Dead Collective EP is the sound of a man who has given himself complete artistic freedom and never sounded better for it. Right now, The Dead Collective are one of the finest — and certainly most innovative — bands around.
Rating: 9/10
