“There are some people on the pitch; they think it’s all over. It is now!”
Kenneth Wolstenholme’s memorable description of Geoff Hurst scoring the final goal for England to win the 1966 World Cup lives long in the memory and I just had to drag it up following the review of Slagger Lund’s ‘To B.Laudrup or not to B.Laudrup’ earlier in the week.
And we’re back in Denmark for this single from OK Echo, a new duo out of Copenhagen consisting of William Foss and Uni Askham who released this, their debut single, ‘Is It Over’, (no question mark, so more of a statement of fact) earlier this month, and the video shortly thereafter.
I was wondering how they arrived at their name and was ranging over everything from ‘Echo Beach’ to ‘OK Computer’ but I only had to look at the press release to realise that it arose out of their determination to be an echo from earlier times; interpreting compositions in a new way, focused on vocals and melody and paying homage where they can to the guitar-based song writing of the 90s and early 00s.
To be honest I personally found that to be a thin time for popular music and was only attracted – at the time – to three songs in the whole of the first half of the 00s, one of them being Christina Aguilera/Linda Perry’s ‘Beautiful’ and another Amy Studt’s ‘Under the thumb.’ I can’t even remember the third, which speaks volumes.
But if these lads can put on a new spin on the music of that era I’m all for it
It’s a break up song as the title suggests. There’s a striking and memorable melody which pervades it throughout with a catchy hook set in it, and it rocks along gently.
The only thing I can’t quite reconcile is the ‘90s’ cachet. Perhaps it’s just me but what I hear is oriented more towards previous eras and US bands like Foreigner, perhaps even with a little nod to the Yacht Rock era of the 1970s. It’s a rich style with excellent harmonies and a little guitar solo that is just so.
Another observation I would make is that it seems at times like they are chomping at the bit to break out into a real rocker and their physical manifestation adds to that. Uni Askham reminds me of Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, who was something of a hell raiser before his demise.
Yep, a very god first effort which I’m sure will create plenty of attention. And they’ve already done that by winning over the British sound engineer Chris Brown, who previously has worked with Muse, Radiohead and Paul McCartney, among others. Chris Brown has mixed and mastered the current single and forthcoming debut album.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okecho.music
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OK_ECHO_
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