Festival feeling, without the mud...
Pop-rock hooks comes to you this week in the shape of Northampton-based Ocasan. Forget the actual date and take a look outside – summer’s here and has been for a few weeks, and only one thing matters right now. Festival season shall soon be upon us, and that means that big yellow ball of warmth and light we’ve been enjoying recently is almost certainly due to cower in some unknown corner of the sky, making way for torrential downpours and muddy fields.
For those not attending any festivals this year, fear not, as we’ve found you a band that personifies that festival feeling. Drag out your sleeping bag, fashion a makeshift den in the living room and listen up as we bring you Ocasan.
Ocasan are a band that clearly know where their own strengths lie, and debut single, ‘When You’re Around’, is a piece of anthemic perfection. Combining catchy riffs and highly infectious sing-along vocals, it's a piece of indie-pop genius. Not since Feeder’s ‘Buck Rogers’ or The Fratellis' ‘Chelsea Dagger’ has any song had that instant hit of crowd gratification.
Musically diverse, their sound travels from upbeat indie, via pop-punk and then into the realms of rawer, darker and edgier rock. Aesthetically, the band is just as varied. The video for ‘When You’re Around’ sees frontman Nick Burns cast as the poster-child for stereotypical ‘indie boy’, seemingly taking style advice from a young Jarvis Cocker. No bad thing, of course – but unusual when teamed with the more rock-based edge of the dreadlocked bassist Rich Webb.
Maybe this is exactly where the band’s charm lies though – diversity obviously works for them. Heck, what does it even matter what works for them? Just know that whatever they’re doing it really does work. Currently playing the odd gig or two ahead of a new album launch in June, the guys are drumming up a fair amount of support for their live sets.
http://www.myspace.com/ocasan
http://www.facebook.com/OcasanMusic
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