ALBUM REVIEW

CHARLIE AND THE OSCILLATOR – MUSICAL EMERGENCY EVACUATION KIT

With Putin currently master of Russian puppets and instigator of unrelenting war and provocation, more strikes taking place than on a Ukrainian battlefield, food banks becoming more popular than your Mum going to Iceland and the Tories seemingly incapable of anything other than self-serving sleaze and cover-ups, you’d be forgiven for thinking that having a whisker of optimism in the current climate (crisis) is a sure sign of losing the plot.

Certainly, Charlie and the Oscillator have not been the luckiest band, bless their psychedelic electronic-infused cotton socks. Ambitious but flawed debut ‘Journey of Echoes’ was released the day after the nation sat in front of their televisions (or other similar technical gadgetry) only to be informed by a certain Boris Johnson that the country was entering lockdown! Such irony that a double album, painfully and artfully constructed and produced over many months, was now open to the ears of a world devastatingly pre-occupied with measuring two meters, buying bog roll and watching daily briefings led by the now jungle adventurer and rule-breaker Matt Hancock.

A little over two years later, July 2022 saw the band showcase an expanded line-up, the duo now a trio: Charlie, The Oscillator and a new addition- poet-extraordinaire and vocalist Shaun Rivers. The ‘Real Disgrace! E.P.’ was a triumph- Rivers was the missing piece of a puzzle that no-one realised even existed. It was a taster of things to come, and now in February 2023, it turns out that Charlie and the Oscillator have been on quite a jungle adventure themselves. Entitled ‘Musical Emergency Evacuation Kit’, or ‘MEEK’ for short, this album is the sound of a band delivering on their early potential- and then some.

The band cover all bases here: darkness, light and somewhere in-between. It’s an inspired album, both in its sound and its ability to both move you and amuse you. It’s a Charlie and the Oscillator-framed mirror showing the world its honest, if unattractive reflection. It’s in the album’s darkest moments that the band truly shine. ‘Revolution in the air, discontent is everywhere’ sings Rivers on Happy Mondays’ Mad Cyril-era throwback ‘Childrens Eyes’. It’s an angry and aggressive song and worthy of repeated listens. Things are even bleaker on ‘Abandoned’- think Massive Attack’s Mezzanine album made for a winter of discontent. ‘Sometimes I hear them screaming as I’m trying to get to sleep and they be creeping in my kitchen cooking up some mischief’. Rivers’ vocals swirl and become almost lost, making his sinister and menacing lyrics become almost omnipresent. It’s simply stunning.

The quick-fire one-two of ‘Ahhhhh’ and ‘Time To Fly’ really get the wheels rolling after the mysterious intro of ‘Music is Notes’. Where as on ‘Childrens Eyes’, Rivers channels his inner Shaun Ryder, on ‘Time To Fly’ he propels the track with a reverb-fuelled psychedelic vocal take that sounds not a million miles away from Tim Burgess. ‘Ahhhhh’ is even better, more akin to early Charlie and The Oscillator with its frantic rhythms, bass and James Bond-style brass. They all accelerate to great effect, glued together by inventive samples and clever chopping and changes. 'Electric Bozo' is a frenetic and franctic mash-up of Prodigy urgency, Black Grape vocal spits and a call to 'shake that shit back into your soul'. It's bold, bright and brimming with confidence.

Meanwhile, ‘Perspektive’ showcases another effective vocal performance from Rivers- but it’s just too similar to ‘Abandoned’ and lacks the power of its sister track. 'Over Nova Scotia' starts promisingly with a Cuban-style piano sample and driving beat, but doesn't quite reach the dizzy heights it strives for as it stalls in the second half.

Reassuringly, the misses are few and far between here and make no mistake, when MEEK is good, it’s extremely good. Take ‘Still Alive’ for example. What starts off as an almost jovial cha-cha-cha synth line, soon ventures off into an almost hymnal religious experience, complete with bells, an ascending melody line and a female talking about whether she’s still alive. It’s a little like waking up from a dream and finding yourself inside the church of Charlie and the Oscillator. It’s a brilliant song, uplifting and sad in equal measure. The emotion really shines to stunning effect.

The band manage to juggle many influences and genres on MEEK whilst still remaining cohesive and focussed. It’s no mean feat by any stretch of the imagination. Norman Cook would raise a wry smile on hearing ‘Thirty Dollar’- a big beat noughties throwback with an incessant but extremely catchy hook that will stay in your brain long after the album fades out. Similarly, ‘The Sheikh’ utilises bold and bright sounds to what can only be described as a ‘strut’. By the time the almost rock-like breakdown drops at the two minute mark, you realise that MEEK is now soaring.

‘Juggling Chickens’ is MEEK’s moment of true genius. Fuck that, it’s godlike. De La Soul meets A Tribe Called Quest. It’s a stripped-back hip-hop groove and it finds Rivers in his absolute element. Lyrically and musically it’s way ahead of anything you’d tune into on mainstream radio. ‘Online smirking, can’t stop twerking, I wanna copulate with my phone…but I’ve got a selfie stick stuck up my ringhole!’ If there’s any justice, this is the one that will make the world sit up and take notice. Album closer ‘Cable Car’ is another astonishing achievement. A gorgeous Doors-like electric piano riff soon becomes surrounded by the most stunning slide guitar, swirling psychedelic vocals from Rivers and a Screamadelica-esque nod to the gods whilst simultaneously tripping on ecstasy. It exits as quickly as it arrives, but it lingers inside your head and your soul. It’s one of the greatest things they’ve done.

MEEK is a work of a band truly finding their place at the table, so often saturated these days by the unlimited and incessant bombardment of ‘new music’ and ‘the next big thing’. Having carefully and meticulously honed their craft since 2018, Charlie and The Oscillator have created an album truly worthy of standing alongside their peers.

9/10

LISTEN TO: 'Juggling Chickens', 'Cable Car', 'The Sheikh''.

Release date: 7th March 2023

Review written by M. Goddard (Herman's Monsters)