Sometimes, the man upstairs plays dreadful geographical tricks on people. Take both OWSLEY SUNSHINE and TONE DEF AMIGOS, for example. If either band was based in London or (perhaps more pertinently) Manchester, they'd probably have connected with serious music biz coverage by now, yet because they hail from darkest Lincolnshire, they're hardly being treated to queues of A&R men sniffing around.
This is a problem, commercially, for the bands, though hooking up with Linconshire's The Foundry Crew collective for promotion and undertaking a 50-date tour to hawk their wares is both a good way ahead and shows the bands themselves have the guts and hunger a long-distance career in this notorious business requires.
Besides, at least creatively, the relative isolation of Lincolnshire has allowed both of these bands time and space to really get to grips with being good/ potentially great in the first place, which is surely what all this is supposed to be about, right?
This "Combined EP" features two tracks each from OWSLEY SUNSHINE and TONE DEF AMIGOS and, as far as I know, will be available on the bands' co-headlining tour which will be well underway by the time you read this. Before we go any further, I should mention it's well worth investing in, too.
OWSLEY SUNSHINE come with a name loaded up with psychedelia and San Fran heyday overtones. Perhaps more relevant, though, is their quoted endorsement from Chameleons guitarist Dave Fielding, as both their tracks here, "Sumoerday" and "I'm Fine" sound like the impressive offspring of solid Mancunian stock.
"Sumoerday" begins moodily with gentle loops and offbeat samples, supplemented by lazy slide guitar and a Roses-meets-Primals atmosphere. Stoned and sunkissed, it kicks into an anthemic groove reminiscent of The Charlatans as it rolls along and digs ecstatically deeper before rising to an almighty crescendo and an organ solo the late Rob Collins woulda been proud of. Clocking in at just over six minutes, you get the feeling it could really stretch out live.
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Second tune "I'm Fine", meanwhile, is again a nimble, psych-tinged thing fleshed out by churchy organ, percussion and four-way harmonies floating off into the ether. The "I'm soldiering, soldiering, soldiering on" hook is dead catchy and a lazy, mellow vibe dominates. Very good.
Arguably even better, though, are fellow Lincs starsailors TONE DEF AMIGOS. Don't let the daft name put you off, because this quintet have a lot going for them. This time, most of the relevant influences are Transatlantic, with singer Jim recalling Neil Young (circa "After The Goldrush") and, especially, Mercuy Rev's Jonathan Donahue. "S-Bends" is an excellent track: stately, mature and every bit as intriguing as you'd hope a song opening with "I saw a ghost on a lonely country road...put it down to the unexplained" would go on to be.
It's a fine piece of work, unexpectedly going for the burn briefly before falling back into its' original state of grace before it signs off, while their second track - and the EP's closer - "Evolution" is a frailer, but no less lovely pastoral outing, aided and abetted by gentle dubwise basslines and patient, soft-suck hi-hat disco counterpoint drums. The tripped-out, backwards masking/ sampleadelic final coda hardly hurts its' chances either.
It's amazing that neither of these bands has - as yet - dug a significant crevice in public consciousness, as both sound just about fully-formed and rather fab to these overworked ears. Still, proof positive once again that the provinces harbour wonderful secrets and all that.
In deepest Lincolnshire something stirs.Great unwashed, you have been warned.
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