Overcasters
Review by Ashlee Elfman

Overcasters don't have a sound that Denver is particularly known for. Powerful, rhythmic drums, soaring guitars and slightly disenchanted vocals bring to mind some of the better sounds of the '80's. Jesus and Mary Chain come to mind, or Echo and the Bunnymen...but then those drums crack just a little more urgently, and those guitars are cranked maybe  just a bit louder. This is dark psychadelia, without the British flounce, and maybe that's where Denver makes its presence known.

Their latest album, "The Whole Sea is Raging" does have a nautical feeling to it, as the title would suggest. It opens up with "Kiss of Sister Ray", which was the track I found myself  re-playing on my way to work. Erin Tidwell's sonic drumming, and John Nichols' soaring, angular guitar reach out of foamy depths and grab at your ankles. Kurt Ottaway's vocals icily glide through the songs with a glacial, at times wearing persistence. The Overcasters are able to find the space between romantic, gauzy sound textures, and upfront reverby rock guitar, as in their song "Vertigo" which starts off with a colossal guitar riff and moves into little pockets of echoed vocals andpoeticical musings. This is one of the more energetic songs on the album, and one of my personal favorites. One gets the sense of a figurative mariner trying to find his place on solid ground, where the restless sea rages and calls in the distance. The next song "Psychopomps" almost serves as an epilogue to "Vertigo", the sound equivalent of tides quietly filling vacant pools. Methodical military style drums, and jangly guitars serve to calm. The landlocked Overcasters have embodied the sea in their latest endeavor. Both vehement and merciful.

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