In A Room – Otis Infrastructure (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

I was rather taken with the funky brace of sonic sweetness In A Room/Out Of A Room, when it fell on my desk, and as those are the opening one-two of this full album, we can skip past them, knowing that I have already given those songs the lyrical adulation they deserve.

Robin Hood, the first song new to these ears, proves to be built along more straightforward, alt-rock lines. Though a word like straightforward is, obviously, only relative and Otis Infrastructure’s (great name, by the way) take on it, still allows for folky interludes, groove some bass runs, busy yet song-serving drum patterns, ambient lulls and searing highs. And that is a lot to fit into one song, but fit it in, they do, and do so without making it seem like this is anything out of the ordinary.

Razor’s Edge is the perfect blend of rock intensity and chart-bound addictions, and Ballet For Yesterday is an almost Beatle-esque ballad, something McCartney would have wrestled you to the ground to get his hands on in the last few years of that band.

Otis Infrastructure don’t just write songs; they make musical statements in the same way that bands such as Rush used to, but they aim theirs at a more musically high-brow yet less elitist audience, one that appreciates the ornateness of their almost proggy approach but who also wants to dance like a lunatic on a full moon evening when the moment is right too.

https://otisinfrastructure.com
https://www.instagram.com/otisinfrastructure
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Cczgli9xIviyYu6jjW1CW?si=jYN4fNxBRcKvHQ9XJgopiw