Tuesday 21 October 2014

Sean O'Neill 'Visions' EP


Antipodean singer songwriter Sean O’Neill swapped the warm open spaces of his native Australia for the cold damp hurly burly of the big smoke a couple of years ago and ‘Visions’, the follow-up release to his ‘Moving in Time’ EP, released down under in 2012, has been inspired by his spell residing in the capital.

Opening number ‘I Know You Worry’ combines sparse piano with smoky vocal (perhaps a little reminiscent of Robert Palmer), and as the track slowly builds, it becomes increasingly dissonant towards its end, a palpable lo-fi cacophony in fact.
‘Carried in the Wind’ opens with pounding drum and warm brass, both startling and soothing at the same time. Handclaps join the percussion for round two, leaving you wondering if our hero has visited places outside the M25 as this tune has a distinctly Northern feel to it, definitely the right side of Watford, not entirely unlike the Spector inspired coda to ‘The Long and Winding Road’.
‘Vienna’ is equally hazy and lazy in equal measure, this time the brass combining with a smattering of ambient noodlings giving it a folktronica feel.

Words - Mike Price

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'Visions' is out now