Vehicle Blues‘ Gabe Holcombe makes the kind of noisy, small room lo-fi that brings all sorts of images into a solitary listener’s mind. On last Fall’s “177,” Holcombe used throbbing rhythms and tape hiss to create a sense of breaking out of a claustrophobic cage. Here on “Oscar Bought a Boat” — a track set for release on a brand new cassette for Bridgetown Records –, Holcombe is escaping yet again. This time around, the situation seems much less dire. Guitars well up in balls of feedback and static and bounce merrily around the track while Holcombe gently croons out a chorus of joyful “oh-ohs.” He manages to create a sense of wide open space in a short, self-contained snippet of sound. It’s as if he’s saying, “Awesome! Let’s all go on a sweet boat trip! But let’s not forget to jam my new cassette while we’re at it.”
Vehicle Blues, “Oscar Bought a Boat” (Bridgetown Records)
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Words: Marc Picciolo
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Tags: Bridgetown Records, Vehicle Blues