El Obo
Oxford Basement Collection
Esperanza Plantation
Calm. This album is calm. Sooo calllmmmm… Excuse me. I nodded off, sorry about that. El Obo is one of those side project things, this time from Jesse Coppenbarger from Colour Revolt. He’s accomplished on the guitar, and his dreamy meandering compositions provide a reflective, ambient sound that can capture your imagination like a butterfly, or slide by as background if something else comes along. How you react never seems as important as the fact that you were part of the experience, and El Obo does “experience” very nicely. Track titles are clever yet enigmatic, “W8 Off My Mind” and “Vrgn Evl,” and “JC vs. the DRs” are typical, and what they have to do with the lyrics is best kept a personal secret by Mr. Coppenbarger. Behind the guitar and dream pop vocals we hear the occasional electric organ, maybe a drum… and was that a cymbal? A single tap of a single cymbal? Overall, this is some of the most complex minimalism I’ve heard in a long time.
Esperanza Plantation: http://esperanzaplantation.com
