Lovingly pinched from The Sleeping Shaman: You have to wonder if Wino wakes up in the morning confused as to which hat he should be wearing on any given day. The man is a human dynamo, a non-stop workhorse of creativity and performance. From the straight up doom of St Vitus to the prog doom of his solo work to the post doom of supergroup Shrinebuilder to the acoustic doom of the Adrift album and now to his latest offering, a collaboration with former touring partner Conny Ochs… collaborative acoustic doom!!!
Don’t be expecting walls of stun guitar or wailing solos. This is more of an extension of the Adrift album but is in no way to detract from the input of Ochs. This is every inch a collaboration with vocals, guitar playing and song writing split right down the middle. For those of you who were sceptical of the idea of Wino releasing one acoustic album let alone 2 within a year should put the prejudices aside as this is a raw, fractured, heartfelt album that draws from folk, Americana and blues as much as it does from Wino’s more obvious influences.
It turns out that Ochs is a real find. Despite the age gap between the pair, Ochs’ vocals display all the time worn emotion that Wino’s do and the pair have a natural, sympathetic way of allowing their own ranges to harmonise and weave around each other…much as they do with their guitar playing.
In many respects Ochs is the stabilising influence that Wino needs in this type of musical world. Wino’s style can border on the random but Ochs brings it into sharp focus with his tight song writing style. Just listen to ‘Vultures By the Vine’ for example with its chugging verse and soaring choruses that owe a great debt, albeit unwittingly I suspect, to the mighty New Model Army.
Continue reading: Wino & Conny Ochs ‘Heavy Kingdom’ CD/LP 2012 review | The Sleeping Shaman.
Tags: Conny Ochs, doom, Exile on Mainstream Records, Folk, Heavy Kingdom, Ollie Stygall, saint vitus, Scott Wino Weinrich, The Obsessed, The Sleeping Shaman, wino, Wino & Conny Ochs
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 at 6:16 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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