This one's actually been kicking around the vast outer reaches of the cool US underground since last year, but W&H have only recently become acquainted with this wired trio from Brooklyn and felt it essential to start spreading the gospel now, not least because they've an album due in early 2004 called "Some Wilderness."
So who the hell are OXFORD COLLAPSE? Well, they're a supercharged buncha young firebrands with a penchant for the manic. Individually, they are: Michael Pace (guitar/ Keyboards/ vocals), Mike Henry (bass) and drummer Dan Fetherstone and collectively they make a seething racket.
It's an attractive one, mind, and over the course of this self-titled 5-track EP, the comparisons come fast and furious as OxC jump from one crazed base to the next. Opener "If It Dies In Peoria, Then Who The Hell Cares?" alone will have you gasping for nitrogen, never mind oxygen, such is its' chaotic, dense, but (and this is important) disciplined rush. Pace's vocals fight helplessly for elbow room, while Dan Fetherstone rides his hi-hat like the very hounds of Hell are nipping at his ass and the whole caboodle sounds like Moving Units being forcibly Botoxed with early Mission of Burma, as does second track "Grasses Of Anne."
Elsewhere, both "Sex Face" and "Havin' A Blast In Co-Op City" date back to the band's dalliance with a churchy sounding Casiotone keyboard. The former is a hotwired instrumental, while "Havin' A Blast..." is a weird, wobbly success, with a wibbly, vocoderised vocal rippling over glorious, dance-y rhythm section. Oxford Collapse are clearly a band who appreciate both their Can and Happy Mondays to grasp for such a feverish, rhythmic raison d'etre.
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Arguably, they save the best for last too. "Melting The Ice Queen" begins with a pile-up of sound, reminiscent of Sonic Youth or Acetone, with bleeding, trebly guitars and manic drumming before falling away to let more piston disco drums in the back door and morph into something akin to New Order on industrial strength PCP. Pace's trebly guitars virtually are Barney Sumner in all but name and for once his circular, repetitive vocal refrain can be made out above the morass. Awesome stuff, in short.
Oxford Collapse, then, are undoubtedly a band to watch. Such is their feverish delivery, they can barely contain the ideas they want to share with us during this souped-up EP and - while some of this is surely in touch with the current Punk-Funk drowning craze - there's enough dissimilarity and striving to go beyond to set them apart from the pack. Where they'll go with their album is difficult to plot at this stage and that's definitely very good reason to stay tuned in.
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