Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Sometimes the brother and sisterhood that you felt safe within fails to show up, occasionally the sense of being cut adrift by those you considered family is so overwhelming that you question your feelings, your reality, the years you have put in and the ear you always offered them; so much so, that the Fraternity Of Strangers will become the company in which you will be more welcome at, more in tune with from the get go.
Judgement is a way of life, but our harshest critics are not those that have no clue to our identity, but those that have cast their eye over your movements, those who see you as what they first appreciated, they can be the most brutal of assessors, they can be the cynic who turns every other soul against you.
Creating art is a passport to an alliance, one that form in which the soul has presented can be consumed, processed, and enjoyed, and when it is a debut offering, when the tides and time of the each fought over line, each cadence, and moment of insecurity are presented, and delightfully prized. It is a prize that is endlessly valued as Martin Nyrup and James Thomas come together under the banner of Oui Plastique and play to the strangers in the gallery with superbly timed and devilishly charming electronica pop.
Fraternity Of Strangers is a demanding album, but once you have the feel, the resonance pumping away in your mind, it transforms, it rejuvenates the feeling of tight expression, and as tracks such as Wish Yourself Away, The Final Delivery, Impulse, Sanctuary, Aftermath, Lost Soul, and Failure magically and persuasively transport the listener to a place of acceptance, so a symbol of friendship, the bond between sound and the soul are sealed.
An album of comradeship, both between the artists involved and the rapport gained by offering an open palm to something new, something built in blood and expression, for in Oui Plastique we have brothers waiting to thrill us.
Oui Plastique release Fraternity Of Strangers on January 28th via ScentAir Records.
Ian D. Hall