The Oscillation on higher plains

The 1960s and 1970s must have been pretty exciting times. The world was transforming into a technological society and cinemas were showing spaceships and time machines. Iron curtains and Berlin walls were driving one half of the world schizophrenic, while the other half was celebrating free love. And it also happens to be the period providing the inspiration for the Oscillation’s music. Any idea what that sounds like?

The band’s name appears to refer to the oscillator, an important part of a synthesizer. At the end of the 1960s, the instrument found its way into pop music. Previously, the gigantic machine was found mainly in laboratories, or was used by a select group of avant-gardist composers. Until Robert Moog made a more compact and affordable version. Bands took to it like ducks to water. Just take the Beatles, the Monkees, and Pink Floyd, for example.

The influence of the latter band is palpable in the Oscillation’s music. Their psychedelic side mercilessly compels you to join their musical trip. There are moments when it’s almost like a roller coaster, lasting minutes at a time. Their second album, Veils, especially sucks you inexorably into a hallucinogenic dream world. On From Tomorrow, released last year, the group thrashes around even more wildly, but the songs are more compact. That results in a slightly punkier sound.

Another indisputable source of inspiration for the British band is krautrock. In West Germany, the young guard was experimenting with the current blues and rock music in the 1970s. This produced a very particular sound, fabricated in an analogue music laboratory. They flirted with ambient and jazz. The spirits of bands like Can, Cluster, Amon Düül II, and the early Kraftwerk are all in the air here, but the Oscillation manages to combine all these elements in a penetrating way, and to distil their own thing out of it. For though we’re making lots of references to the past, don’t forget that the band has given it all a totally new face.

The first single was released in January 2006, when the Oscillation was still Demian Castellanos’ solo project. After the well-received debut album Out of Phase, the band went on tour and hordes of new members signed on. So it’s no surprise that the Oscillation goes through a constant evolution. Get ready for an evening on higher plains.

The Oscillation 10/1, 20.30, gratis/gratuit/free, Beursschouwburg, rue A. Ortsstraat 20-28,
Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-550.03.50, www.beursschouwburg.be