Hollow Ox

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Hollow Ox are a hauntingly effective, instrumentally astute and creatively inventive four-piece from Nashville, Tennessee USA comprising Cole Street, Mike Crouch, Matthew Mckeever and Jeremy McCall. I first stumbled across them when my good friend Tim Carey, from Nashville, recommended them for the Terrastock Tea Party held at the Springwater last May, along with 84001, Magick Plants and Heathern Haints. A combination of time, cost and distance meant I wasn’t able to attend, unfortunately, but according to Tim, “We [84001] suprised a few people by completely changing our instrumentation and setlist. Heathern Haints gave an inspired set of dark psychedelia with many curious peaks. Hollow Ox was simply beautiful with all of their shimmery sound. And Magick Plants just rocked our faces off...” Sounds like a good night to me!



My interest thus piqued, I picked up a CD-EP with a silk-screened cover by Hollow Ox dating from last year (i.e. 2007) a month or so later at this summer’s Terrastock festival in Louisville, Kentucky – and to be perfectly honest it’s rarely been far away from my ears ever since. Title song ‘Similar Light’ lopes along in a very Windy and Carl-esque way, which is no bad thing, with hushed vocals set against eerie washes of beautifully full, rounded guitar tones. ‘Sketch 01’ is arguably the stand-out number of the collection for me, with a mesmerising electric guitar strum set against train-line percussion (you know that rhythmic sound you hear while travelling on a train, broken only by the sound of clattering over the points or the Doppler effect of passing a crossing gate bell? That’s what I mean...), which at the five minute point dissolves completely into a colourful, shimmering haze like petrol fumes on a sunny day. ‘Fallen’ and ‘Become Action’ both have that classic post-rock darkness then shade effect nailed down just beautifully.



Post-rock is a style, an artistic endeavour if you like, which Hollow Ox toy with and then shy away from on a regular basis, rightly so in my opinion since, despite their primarily instrumental leanings – vocals are used more as shading and colouration than to add depth of meaning – Hollow Ox are much more than sonic whispers irregularly broken by plangent guitar and percussion. The EP features 5 tracks, although a couple more have been tagged onto my copy – presumably works in progress for a 12” planned for a December 2008 release. If you make your way along to http://hollowox.com/Songs you’ll find a host of free downloads available – all highly recommended by yours truly. (Phil McMullen) - http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Reviews_August08.htm

Hollow Ox have maintained a rather hermetic existence, and even though they're playing the opening slot at a fairly isolated and obscure locale, they could use this year's festival as something of a coming-out party. Maybe. This isn't always the type of music that commands mass attention. Taking their cues largely from late-'80s and early-'90s shoegazers, Hollow Ox focus less on the wall of sound favored by My Bloody Valentine and more on the shimmering, arpeggiated guitars and washes of hushed vocals exhibited by the likes of Slowdive or Pale Saints. The resulting gorgeous soundscapes play to post-rock's strengths while sidestepping its overindulgences. 8 p.m. —M.S.


http://www.nashvillescene.com/2008-09-11/news/next-big-nashville-thursday/ - Nashville Scence