Whatever you do, don’t read this guy’s bio before listening to his music. It might just piss you off, or at the very least, turn you off. It sort of reeks of pretentiousness, a lot of disenfranchised language strung together, with hints of tiny relevance squeezed in. I think it’s trying to be artsy. But I just had a knee-jerk, snap-back “eww” reaction. Otherwise, Sol Oosel is pretty good.
I guess that’s what you get when you attempt due diligence, instead of just taking the music on its own terms. In all fairness, I actually gave “The Dark Side of the Sun” quite a few listens prior to attempting said research. It was one of those Spotify Discover Weekly specials, which just kind of popped out of nowhere and announced itself. Sometimes those algorithms actually do align with my tastes. Anyway, I saw that Sol Oosel was credited. And with a name like that, I just had to explore further. Then I stumbled into that pile of bio.
That said, “The Dark Side of the Sun” is a pretty nifty little track. It’s a kind of techno-rock psychedelia, with subtle hints of industrial and progressive rhythms. It moves quickly, with drive and purpose, shifting freely between dark and light tones. And it’s got a propulsive trippin’ groove that crisscrosses genres, twisting and weaving disparate styles into colorfully kaleidoscopic textiles. If you dig into its mix, you’ll hear all types of interesting weird stuff. I keep finding new sonic quirks on repeated listens. So maybe that artsy motif is best left to the beat.
Sol Oosel’s a Mexican-born, multifaceted artist. I’m guessing that’s what his bio was trying to say. In addition to music, he’s a filmmaker, dancer, artist, and a bunch of other stuff. Funny thing … when I first heard “The Dark Side of the Sun,” I actually thought I was listening to Finnish conceptualist Mikko Joensuu. Turns out I was on the wrong continent. I covered one of Mikko’s tracks back in January. The vocal styles are similar between the two, as are the aural aesthetics, at least given this track. Now that I’m hearing some of Sol’s other work, he sounds more like the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant. But those are the other songs.
Try out Sol Oosel’s “The Dark Side of the Sun,” and see if such a paradox can shine in your world. Just don’t read the bio …
“The Dark Side of the Sun” from the 2018 album “Janus.”
