Saturday 27 February 2016

Conny Ochs - "Future Fables" (Album Review)

By: Victor Van Ommen

Album Type: Full-Length
Date Released: 26/02/2016
Label: Exile On Mainstream


This record has the potential to speak to many of us heavy rock fans despite its level of sentiment and sparse use of instrumentation. There’s passion and well-placed emotion that resonates through these songs. They’re deliciously fragile because of it. If that’s your thing; if you can appreciate singers baring their soul with nothing more than an acoustic guitar as accompaniment, then this one’s for you.

“Future Fables” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Hole
2. Piece Of Heaven
3. Killer
4. Spin
5. Wake Up
6. Empire
7. Golden Future
8. Slide
9. No Easy Way
10. Fools
11. Strange Alchemy
12. Make Some Room


The Review:

On “Future Fables,” we have Conny Ochs and his guitar taking a seat next to us on the couch. That’s how close and personal these twelve tracks feel. He has the capability to hush the crowd and demand attention without needing to stomp on a distortion pedal or rip his vocal chords to ribbons. 

There’s nothing psychedelic here and if it’s heavy you’re looking for then you’ll find it in the mood and not the tones. “Piece of Heaven” plays out to a familiar song structure – interchangeable verses and choruses – and uses a full band to do this. “Fools” does the opposite by employing its verses to set the stage for the chorus, and does this successfully with just two guitars and powerful vocals. Ochs’ best qualities come out in “Killer,” a song with finger snapping, light drumming and a bluesy walk around the guitar. Though the song threatens to break out in the chorus, it never does and that’s one of its strengths. “Spin” uses beautiful vocal harmonies to call the listener to “put your hard rock music on,” which hints at Ochs’ underlying influence.

Despite his hard rock soul, these are gentle songs that are soft to the touch and therefore inviting. It’s only once the listener allows himself to be enveloped by Ochs’ voice, lyrics, and overall presence that the melancholy rises to the surface. This puts Ochs firmly into the category “singer-songwriter” but he’s able to stray from the drek that the mainstream pushes our way and thus avoids sounding like a limp dick resting up against your ear. Instead, Ochs flexes his muscles by using his acoustic guitar to tame the beast that is an emotionally wrought songwriter.

This record has the potential to speak to many of us heavy rock fans despite its level of sentiment and sparse use of instrumentation. There’s passion and well-placed emotion that resonates through these songs. They’re deliciously fragile because of it. If that’s your thing; if you can appreciate singers baring their soul with nothing more than an acoustic guitar as accompaniment, then this one’s for you.

Future Fables” is available here


Band info: facebook || bandcamp