OKLAHOMA CITY — Summer in Oklahoma can mean a lot of things, from the vastness and openness of nature to the mercurial weather and even the brutality of the heat and the woeful psychological effects it can have.
However the season strikes you, it’s safe to assume that the breakneck summer pace is likely to have you feeling pressed for time and pulled in any number of different directions.
So that means that you might be looking for some great new music releases that won’t demand too much time out of your day, and that, of course, means EPs.
Luckily, a few seriously creative talents from around OKC have dropped some fantastic short-form offerings in the past month, all under 25 minutes, giving you a perfect opportunity to soak up some local sounds while you soak up the sun, and all without straining your busy summer schedule.
Gonzo LeBronzo – ‘American Roulette EP’
The Gonzo LeBronzo guys have become some frequently recurring characters in this column over the past couple of years, owing to their consistent output of some of OKC’s most raucous and unapologetic rock.
Well, if they’ve been passionate before, they’re full-on firebrands now.
Their new 20-minute “American Roulette EP” sees the power trio blasting through all the anger, worry, and persistent cognitive dissonance of the modern age, referencing everything from the school shooting epidemic in the US to the wanton bombings and decimations abroad.
Singer/guitarist David Hanon has never sounded more fiery (or more like Incubus singer Brandon Boyd, actually) and though you can’t always make out every word through the crashing rock and seething delivery, his meaning and his convictions are always crystal clear.
The production this time around is thicker and denser, but never slick. In fact, the beefier sound only serves to crank up the grunge and put more power behind the band’s punch.
“Portals” comes as close to straight-up punk rock as the LeBronzos have ever gotten, and “Air Raid” matches their most prog-leaning, surprisingly Rush-ian riffing with the release’s most devastatingly blunt and politically unambiguous lyricism.
The inclusion of a blistering rock take on Frank Ocean’s modern classic requiem for love and faith, “Bad Religion,” is welcome and adds an unexpectedly emotional button to the EP’s ending.
“American Roulette EP” by Gonzo LeBronzo drops on Bandcamp Friday, August 9th and on all other streaming services Friday, August 16th. Follow Gonzo LeBronzo on Instagram at @gonzolebronzo.
Adam and The Original Sin – ‘Trailer Next Door EP’
Multi-instrumentalist and lyrical contortionist Adam Ray is something of a one-man band, but bills himself as Adam and The Original Sin, raising the question of whether that’s meant to be a backing band designation or just the baggage that he carries with him in his songwriting.
Either way, Ray is having so much fun peeling back the layers on his lyrical themes while building up the musical layers beneath that you’d never know there wasn’t a whole indie-funk orchestra behind him.
There’s something inherently summery about the songs here, from the lead-off title tribute to the most unexpectedly holy and mysterious places that we all used to explore when we were kids to the all-too-familiar severe weather signifiers twisted brilliantly into lovelorn laments.
Throughout, the songs tend to sit in that eternally sunny, nostalgic place of energetic 90s funk-rock, somewhere between They Might be Giants and Fountains of Wayne. And it’s a great place to spend 20+ minutes on a summer’s day.
Ray also drops a surprising cover to wrap things up, shooting for a total funk deconstruction of Coldplay’s signature “The Scientist,” accentuating the hardluck comedy of errors at the heart of the song’s contradictory considerations before floating off into the ambient ether.
“Trailer Next Door EP” by Adam and The Original Sin is available on streaming services now. Follow Adam and The Original Sin on Instagram at @adamandtheoriginalsin.
Chameleon Factory – ‘Nuevo Nocturno EP’
Speaking of the ether, that’s the home turf of the exceedingly and excitingly weird Chameleon Factory, one of the scene’s furthest “out there” purveyors of ambient experimentation and electronic strangeness.
There have always been two different kinds of ambient music, one that is generally softly melodic or non-invasive and designed to become a part of the environment, and another that is largely untethered from melody or rhythm and is instead creating an environment of its own.
Chameleon Factory’s music falls firmly into the latter category.
Like Eno’s legendary “On Land,” “Nuevo Nocturno” conjures synthesizer oddities into the sounds of animal chirping and windswept wilderness. Practically everything is texture and environmental development, aiming to remove your mind and place it in an alien landscape punctuated only rarely by a chord or notated line.
It’s not meant to calm you. It’s meant to transport you.
Jackson Fritts, the mind behind Chameleon Factory, makes it clear that the entire EP was inspired by the vastness and enchantment of New Mexico, and that comes through in the overwhelming desert-ness of the sounds engulfing you throughout.
In the unexpected times that a beat or rhythm creeps in, there’s a clear bit of Tangerine Dream behind it, hypnotic and transitory. When a chord progression rears its head, it’s often touched with dissonance like some kind of classic Hammer horror score.
By the time you reach the 7-and-a-half-minute closer “Adovada simmer/Owl’s journey,” the constraints of music have practically all fallen away and left something closer to an extraterrestrial language, beeping and cascading and changing pitches and keys on a whim. When a kind of percussion finally rolls in, it just registers as another textural element rather than a build towards something.
There wouldn’t be anywhere to build toward. You’re already there in the desert, standing and listening and absorbing the strange collection of sounds that could just as easily be blowing in off the dunes or vibrating out of the sky.
‘Nuevo Nocturno EP” by Chameleon Factory is available now on Bandcamp. Follow Jackson Fritts and Chameleon Factory on Instagram at @ambient_jukebox.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.