Posted on: September 19, 2018 Posted by: Markus Druery Comments: 0

The fiercely cutthroat New England indie rock scene has been going through a lot of volatile changes lately, particularly near the top of its creative hierarchy. The old guard is on their way out, and in their place a new group of skilled minds are looking to fill the void with their own version of the New England sound – a version, I should mention, that is far more lustfully ambient than anything their predecessors could have ever devised. There’s so much talent to talk about, but no one has been getting the kind of buzz that rock n’ roll crew Oberon Rose has been lately. Powered by the songwriting duo of Tommy Oberon and Rebecca Rose, this three piece neo-psychedelic thunderstorm released a music video for their song “No Stranger” this month to critical acclaim, and it’s not the first time that the band has gotten everyone in and out of their scene talking about their potential. That potential is finally beginning to blossom into a ferocious beast in its own right (ironically by adding a new layer of artistry to their sound via filmmaking), and just one view to the band’s latest creative piece should be enough to get any rock fan addicted to their potently mind bending musical formula.

The melody of “No Stranger” is suspiciously wrapped in so many layers of sonic gravity that one could mistake it for a lost My Bloody Valentine outtake if played at a loud enough volume. As it stands, this is far from a shoegaze piece in narrative, but it definitely offers the same peek into the druggy world of mysticism and enigma that so many of the group’s influences tried to tap into with somewhat mixed results. “No Stranger” takes advantage of the listener’s depth of audio and manipulates it so that we’re not listening to a rock song but rather an electric orchestra of melodic feedback. Watching the video only enhances the depth of the listening experience by taking us on a visual journey more akin to an acid trip than a music video where color and sound meld into a singular entity that cannot be easily discerned from one another. Fans of pumped volume will go crazy over this song’s glorious circulation, while critics of modern rock music will have to find some other genre to attack with their ignorant assumptions.

2018 has been such a good year for independent music, and with the rise of Oberon Rose it’s thrills don’t appear to be stopping any time soon. Unlike some of the folks who think that it’s getting harder and harder for bands to produce authentic, organic indie rock in this day and age of excessive technological input, I think that the future is starting to yield more evocative results than the past did almost exclusively because of this newfound diversity in the international scene. Oberon Rose is at the apex of crossing over into YouTube-topping (and Billboard-climbing) territory and they aren’t looking to sell out their DIY ethos for any price on the planet. They give us reason to believe that indie rock is advancing into the 2020s just fine, and if you need proof you can watch the video for “No Strangers” and judge for yourself; I don’t think you’ll disagree.

“No Stranger” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6T2Kg-1Pss

PRIMARY URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6T2Kg-1Pss

Kim Muncie

 

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