I really enjoyed Oaken Lee’s run of spacious, modern-folk singles that drifted into the review pile last year, but this latest release, which sees him hook up with CutWires, an artist known for slightly off-beat, beat-driven electronic dance vibes, is a very different beast. The sound of opposites attracting? Perhaps, but isn’t it such collisions of creative contrast where all the best new music is found?
Indeed it is, and Oaken Wires’ (geddit?) latest single, ‘Parakeets’, is an example of why collaborations between like-minded creatives, and not necessarily just those working in the same sonic space, are so important to the evolution of music.
So, seductive folk meets subtle grooves…but more than that, ‘Parakeets’ echoes with the same soulful sass that I remember hearing in Latin Quarter’s elegant vibe all those years ago, one forged of sonic spice echoing from far-flung locations, of poise and pounancy dancing deftly together. (You, dear reader, are probably too young to remember them, but if you have read this far, they are definitely on your if you like that, you’ll like this list.)
But perhaps more than the song’s heady Island vibes, sun-kissed mellotron, Spanish guitar breaks, smart and ever-changing beat patterns, and 3 am chillout room brilliance is the message: the past is done, it says; it is what we do now, in this moment, that dictates and shapes the future. A simple ideology, perhaps, but sometimes the great philosophies of the world are that straightforward.
The song might make your night; the message could change the world!
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