(NL 2015, LP produced by Ring of Fire)
"A brimstone harvest", by Sparrow Falls seems to me one of the best releases of this first part of 2015. The album contains 10 tracks of a very experimental oi! from Netherland: i just can't find any band to make a comparison because they are the first in line in trying to do something like this. A pretty oi! sound is the foundation on wich they build the songs, adding and mixing this sound with a country/bluegrass attitude. How many oi! bands use a banjo in some songs? I don't know the number, but for sure, Sparrow Falls got a banjo and a keyboard and, fuck, they are pretty intense and good in what they are doing, like it's a freaking country oi! music style. Of course it stinks a little like it's music for fucking indies or hipsters,, but the mix is so strange that deserves at least a listen, with that impression of post-punk, and a melancholic attitude above all the songs. It's not a coincidence if this LP is produced by Ring of Fire Records, not a traditional oi! label, that on its catalog got people like Koffin Cats, Nowhereboung and other bands that like to mix together different genres. Not for the people who thinks oi! was born and died with Last Resort, if you know what i mean.
The singer got some melodic skills and for sure use it without abusing, to build a strange atmosphere that the other guys strenghten with a powerful wall of music made of a lot of levels where one overlying the other without deleting it. Nothing hard, nothing rude, just a fine work of construction that can be a good alternative and/or a good cue to renew this sound.
The album opens the dance with "The festering", a rock'n'roll track that introduces us to what "A bromstone harvest" want to be. Going on we find the best tracks of the LP: the titletrack (that mix together country athmosphere and epic sound), "Fragments of once", "Wrong eyed Jesus in the trunk" and the final one "Berlin, you're murder". The other songs got a too heavy indie influence and this ruins the listening for people used to a more rude sounds, so "Shipburner", "Rooster's lament", "Belarusian white" and "The calm", that we save for his melancolic attitude (we can be romantic, sometimes!).
In few words, if you like oi!bands with innovative and experimental sounds you'll love Sparrow Falls, that got this kind of messing the cards in the NDA. All their production is a mix, an half breed with different genres and stuff, something that shouldn't work but, it works, and with an high quality work behind! For sure they are rare, and i can't name (as already said) any bands that make this kind of stuff, just the Boxcutter Boys for their use of acoustic guitars, and, maybe the Thin Lizzy (that were also one of the most important influences of the Slades). About this review we, writers of the blog, were a little doubtful, 'cause of its strange genre and 'cause it isn't the classical skinhead sound, but well, why not try? Listen to it, in case trash it.
| 1) The Festering | |
| 2) A Brimstone Harvest | |
| 3) Shipburner | |
| 4) Rooster's Lament | |
| 5) Fragment's Of Once | |
| 6) The Calm | |
| 7) Harlequin | |
| 8) Wrong Eyed Jesus In The Trunk | |
| 9) Belarusian White | |
| 10) Berlin, You're Murder Bandcamp |
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