Thee Oh Sees
The Cool Death of Island Riders

Just these days, Thee Oh Sees have announced an indefinite hiatus due to logistical issues (apparently John Dwyre, the mastermind behind the project, is moving to LA, while vocalist-keyboardist Brigit Dawson is going to Santa Cruz) but also to rest due to their relentless activity. Since 2007, they have released 12 albums, plus tons of singles, splits, compilations, and an endless series of live shows that have taken them all over the world. But not only that: it can be said that John Dwyre hasn't stopped since 2003 when he formed Pink & Brown, and it's hard to believe that he can stay inactive for long. Among the bands he has formed or played with, we must definitely remember Coachwhips, The Hospital, the lo-fi project ibm gay Zeigenbock Kopf, the Netmen with Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt. But the list is still long.

If John Dwyre described Coachwhips, with their punk and wild energy, as "drugs and heaviness," the origins of this group can be marked as "drugs and lightness." The early albums of our artist have a decidedly meditative and relaxed approach compared to past furies. The drums took a marginal role, and he recorded with simplicity his reverberated guitar, electronic drones, and his falsetto voice. From the first album "34 Reasons Why Live Goes on Without You/18 Reasons to Love your Hater to Death" (where the band name is marked as OCS, Orinoka Crash Suite) to the album "Sucks Blood" (here as Thee Ohsees) in 2007, the group delves into an intimate, simple, sometimes ironic and sometimes irreverent musical exploration, strictly lo-fi. Until the turning point album "The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In" (where the band's name finally becomes Thee Oh Sees), the band's sound is a sort of drugged, voluminous, ethereal folk, but punk, given the raw nature and noise disturbances. Although simple songs, he truly has an original compositional skill: there's a lot of avant-garde in the tracks, for sounds, structures, and references.

"The Cool Death of Island Riders" is from 2006 and is probably the most representative album of the period. The first track "Guilded Cunt" can be the band's aesthetic manifesto: Dwyre and Dawson's falsetto voices float ethereal and sarcastic over a reverberated guitar. More than on technique, Dwyre does an astonishing (in many senses) work on sounds: those irreverent and restless chords are easily recognizable due to the unique timbre. The second track, another elongated ballad, "The Dumb Drums," with the wrong cut at the start, shows how much the band prefers a poetics of error, the simple, the hermetic. The path opened by Daniel Johnston and Calvin Johnson seems well-digested and innovated.

A psychedelic opening is offered by "Losers in the Sun" with the crazy cymbals, guitars, banjo, and the chirping of birds. This clamor stops to make room for the voices and then returns at the end. The track "Drone Number One" marks the midpoint of the album, and as the title suggests, it is a five-minute drone. Still, the electronics open the track "Island Riders" to continue in the typical Ohseesian ballad, while "Cool Death" has a more bluesy edge. This track is disturbed by distorted and delayed guitars, and throughout the piece there is an abuse of tremolo. In "Broken Stems," accompanying the guitar and drum are a siren and a theremin. And finally comes "We Are Free" which is one of the album's highest artistic points. Here the tones, at first, are more meditative and reflective until they rise into a cathartic explosion of guitars and drums. After this track, what remains is "Drone Number 2" and the very elongated "You Oughta Go Home," where the theremin and other sounds support the melodic and evocative voices. In this track, Dawson sounds like a banshee casting her sad laments to the wind.

And after all this? There will still be "Blood Sucks," but then there is no turning back. The band's sound will become much more rock and garage. Although Thee Oh Sees will manage to maintain an original spirit, excellent sound care, beautiful tracks, and enviable energy in live performances, that "avant" characteristic that made the early records so unique and whimsical disappears. John Dwyre is not interested in remaining faithful to himself but in innovating and being free to do what he wants. In any case, for me, a fan from the beginning, hearing this devolution into something more classic and conventional left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

For those who love lo-fi music, this album is definitely a must. For those who prefer more classic sounds, less ramshackle and more "rock," something else is certainly recommended. Thus, it is a very difficult album to judge: as far as I'm concerned, it would be a solid five, but many musicians would probably dismantle it in a matter of minutes. With Ohsees (and with lo-fi in particular), what matters is the inspiration, not the technique or the recording. Inspiration, folks, here is plentiful, the album captures a particularly happy moment in Dwyre's artistic life.