16 Horsepower

Item: Olden
Author: Jeffrey Overstreet

Olden

(2003)

Reviewed by Jeffrey Overstreet

Discogs Bandcamp

Label Jetset RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2003

alternative country americana gothic rock

As an album, 16 Horsepower's latest release Olden could serve a variety of purposes.

Perhaps it works best as a collector's item--a heap of alternate versions and live performances of songs they featured on previous releases.

It could also serve as a study of how their style changed from their early bare-bones sound of 1992 to an increasingly intense, energetic, voice-crying-in-the-wilderness hysteria.

Or better, it chronicles how difficult it is to effectively capture this band's sound on a recording. The first section, the Night Owl Sessions of 1993, present the band in a fairly flat production. The second act shows the band more polished and confident, but more importantly, the production captures their searing clarity and David Eugene Edwards' welding-torch intensity as a vocalist and lyricist. It plays like a bonus to their finest package Secret South. And the third act offers fans a feast of live performances that recast favorites in surprising arrangements.

One can always hope the collection will work as a showcase introducing people to one of rock's best-kept secrets throughout the '90s. Like punk rock prophets from the backwoods, they took the stage, sat down, and then built a rock-and-roll bonfire that drew the audience to rapt attention.

I will never forget the first time I saw them in Seattle, at the (now-vanished) Backstage. In what must have been someone's inspired joke, they were opening for the Innocence Mission. Two bands whose music is rooted in gospel and spirit, whose styles are like oil and water. Within a few moments, they had us all paralyzed, transfixed, with the inescapable feeling that we were witnessing something unlike anything else on earth. After the first few numbers knocked our jaws half-off their hinges and left our ribs reverberating with the resonance of their bass-heavy sound, there was thunderstruck ovation followed by a brief and bewildered pause. In that moment, some brave soul spoke for us all, shouting amazed and crazed from the back: "Who ARE you guys?!!!"

Lead singer David Eugene Edwards remains a sight to behold, and a sound to be heard--leaning forward into his microphone with a holy rage, as if letting agents of God's wrath declare ultimatums through him, or giving voice to ghosts of the deep south testifying of transgression, fire, and brimstone. He can be truly terrifying. He is always compelling. And he knows the sound that works best to support him. The thrumming bass and thundering drums give his frenetic bandoleon riffs a firm foundation.

Olden, their second release on the Jetset label, offers 12 demos as yet unreleased and then alternate and live versions of favorites. Perhaps their defining number, "American Wheeze" off of 1996's Sackcloth'n'Ashes, gets two treatments here: an early demo and then a wilder, more practiced performance that cranks up the energy and volume.

For those who saw the band live in the early shows, they had to wait until 2000's Secret South before a producer came along who knew how to capture the impact of their live sound. And that quality shines through midway through the album, especially on "My Narrow Mind," "American Wheeze," and "Shametown."

A few unnecessary interview clips basically tell us what we already know about the band, making this feel like an attempt to persuade us of the band's greatness. It also takes our mind off the discomforting poetry of their lyrics. It would have been more interesting to have longer clips that gave us some insight into where this material comes from, what influences are at work in the lyrics and the sound, or the ongoing question among those who hear them live--Are they entirely serious about the furious God they sing about?

Their latest new release Folklore showed them drawing even further into spooky abstractions and strange talespinning, a style that does not get much focus here.

It is hard not to wonder if the band is cleaning house, preparing to move on to other projects, or if they are trying to expand their audience before unleashing some new manifestation. Whatever their plans, those that discover them will likely be grateful for this uneven release, another glimpse at an energy and a sound that, except for distant echoes of Nick Cave and Jeff Buckley, resembles nothing else in modern rock.

3 tocks