steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

One Ohio Winter

Self-Titled CD

Spirit Badge Records

Genres: indie rock, emo, ambient

e-mail the band

Mar 31 - Apr 6 2003

Math rock suggests a very complex sound - knotty rhythms, bending, reticular guitars, and buried, yet pleasant melodies.  One Ohio Winter seems to fit the bill in concept, but one listen to this album will assure you that they don't quite stick to any one style at all.

First off, most of OOW's music is instrumental.  Lyrics appear on only a few of this eponymous album's eleven tracks; the focus is clearly on the bass, guitar, and drums.  But that isn't really a problem.  The band play with such a passion - scaling hills of both delicate calmness and volatile rawk - that lyrics are never really craved for.  The quiet calmness can be seen in the proggy emo-styled "30", and even moreso in the ambient soundscapes of "Cold Fingers" and "J.L.P.".  Meanwhile, their capricious rock style is evident in "Midnight Monologue" and "Ashamed".

This combination of calmness and energy is pretty nice, but the album seems to be broken up too much by it.  The first half boasts a lot of the powerful rock material, whereas the second half has the emo and the ambient parts.  This disjunction weighs on the album's flow a bit, and makes it less of an album you listen all the way through to, and more of the type of record you pick and choose from for mixtape purposes.

Altogether, this album may be a little disjointed, but it's still a very enjoyable debut for a new band out of Bowling Green, Ohio.

85%

Fun Fact: Bowling Green, OH, where One Ohio Winter are from, is the 1293rd most populous city in the US (as of 2003)!  It's also home to Bowling Green State University!  Wow!

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 11 songs + 1 hidden, distributed by the band, released 2002]