Oosterdok: Some Day We Will Part Forever
Brown House

Though it includes only four songs, Some Day We Will Part Forever impresses as an accomplished debut. The London-based Oosterdok creates ‘80s-styled electro-pop with Jay Line providing synth-heavy arrangements for Becky Naylor's classically-trained singing. The stately “Bob's Lost Day” opens the EP strongly with pulsating verses and rousing, multi-layered choruses while the more dramatically brooding “Psirens” suggests a Ladytron influence in its melody and vocal. By the end of the EP's sixteen minutes, though, it's apparent that Naylor's generally appealing singing could be less robotic, an adjustment, for example, that would help humanize the otherwise satisfying ballad “Highuponahilltop.” It's easy to overlook that weakness, however, when pretty piano figures and delicate vocals augment the EP's best track, the lovely “You Won't See Me in Heaven.” There's an echo of Depeche Mode in its affecting melodies and, with its mellotron and fuzzy guitar sound, even an echo of King Crimson in its instrumentation. Put simply, the song encapsulates the group's strengths in one single, dreamy gesture.

July 2005