There is something about Octavian Winters’ ability to build the most exotic and exciting, dark and beguiling soundscapes that sets them apart from most of the modern bands following in the post-punk-darkwave tradition. As has been proven by so many contemporary bands trying to capture that classic sound, it takes more than a pounding bass line, scything guitars, and big drums… although they certainly have plenty of that.
Without sounding all hippy, I guess the difference is they mean it! These are no mere revivalists looking to jump on nostalgia bandwagons and ride coattails. There is more to it than that, and “Elements of Air,” their latest single, is a great example of just how smart they are.
They don’t emulate familiar sounds; they build fantastic sonic worlds! From the tribal beat intro to the sepentine and shimmering guitars that slice the air like a sword-wielding dervish at work, from the depth charge bass to Ria Aursjoen’s beguiling vocals, a voice that seems to land somewhere between the arabesque and the otherworldly, this is a song that transports you to another time, another place… another dimension.
You may hear echoes of a post-punk past flitting through the charged sonic storm that this music-as-ritual conjures, but those echoes go back further, deeper; they are primitive to the point of primal, artistic and animalistic, like a sonic front creeping forward in time heading out from the dawn of creation.
Whatever it is they do, they do it so damned well. Music should be transformative, elemental (pun intended), otherworldly, and intangible. And this is exactly how you make music that puts you in touch with such ancient and archaic emotion.
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