EP Review: Soaked Oats – Sludge Pop (Dot Dash/Rhythmethod)

Self-described Dunedin “sludge-pop” quartet Soaked Oats turn up with their third EP, released digitally and on 10’ coloured vinyl.

The band…vocalist Oscar Mein (larynx), guitarist Henry Francis (bubble stick), bass player Max Holmes (blue whale) and drummer Conor Feehly (gorilla sticks) have been releasing original music since 2017 with previous EPs addressing pressing issues such as stone fruit and slipping on the ice.

The band has been gaining momentum, recently touring the States and Australia, as well as native New Zealand.

This 5-song EP begins with Shuggah Doom, a five-minute plus track featuring Francis’s reverb-drench guitar. The wistful, easy-going tune finds Mein comparing a relationship to filmmaking and he begins singing, “Fade in and cut to me sinkin’”, in his best Lou Reed-style drawl.  Later, he warns, “If there’s a film going on then be sure that it’s not all about you”.

The words “shuggah doom” seem to be a thruway line. And as the song heads to its conclusion, the vocal ends and the guitars take over, sounding  a bit like Television, but only turned up to 5.

Coming Up begins with a tense, guitar line, like time ticking by and some seemingly stream-of-consciousness lyrics…”Awake, hate, the blanket, it weighs, where I stay.”  Then the band locks into a groove driven by the bass line and coloured by, what sounds like, a vibraphone.

“Life is always coming up from behind”, reveals Mein, then the guitars, full of distortion, kick in and the band rocks to the conclusion.

Driftworld is an instrumental best described as a three and a half musical journey. It starts slow and moody, then ramps up the pace, guitars strumming and drums skittering. After a break down, the distortion pedals come out until we hear what sounds like an explosion and another energetic break out.  I’ll bet this is killer live.

My Mud Your Shoes cranks up the reverb again as Oscar mulls over a relationship. “I don’t know if I’ve made the right move, I sometimes felt that I didn’t fit with your groove.  The vocal to this dreamy track eventually evaporates, giving way to the rest of the band.

Don’t Chew closes out the set. It’s inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses, particularly the lyric, “Don’t chew something that’s eating you”.  Something of a cautionary tale, it’s one of those tunes that you find popping back up in your brain hours after hearing it.

And that’s it, five new songs from a band that has been anointed by one digital outlet as creating “the new Dunedin sound”.

I’m not sure about that, nor would I call what they do, “sludge pop”.

But no matter what you call it, it sounds like something I’ll be wanting to hear more of.

Marty Duda