Right from the haunting piano and impressive drum sound in the opening, you know that ‘Oil & The Water‘ is going to be something rather special. You can feel the track building right from the word go, and as the vocals kick in here the track certainly doesn’t disappoint.
Whilst Death In Texas may be a band without a guitarist to speak of, what we do have here is an instrumental section of keys, bass, and drums that fits absolutely perfectly with the vocal work of Ruth Power. Ruth actually also happens to be the band’s pianist; clearly an astute instrumentalist as well as a very impressive vocalist. Instrumentally the band’s music is understated yet absolutely perfectly presented, the main focus is on the vocals here, but nonetheless the instrumental work offered in the track is absolutely sublime at all times and the drumming in particular here really does suit the Death In Texas sound absolutely brilliantly. The bassist’s work is also impressively presented here, a lot of the time it’s easy to forget about the individual components of the music as the instrumental elements of the band’s sound all combine together so well, there are certainly times when the bass work really hits you however and you really begin to appreciate the talent that is on display here.
I mentioned before about the haunting nature of the keys at the start of the track, and Ruth’s vocal sound definitely compliments and works well with this. Ruth most certainly has a very powerful voice, it’s something that’s central to the track, and as ‘Oil & The Water‘ progresses a very impressive vocal range is demonstrated on her behalf. It’s very hard not to fall in love with this kind of a voice and I’m sure that there are many Death In Texas fans out there that hold her vocal ability in an incredibly high regard, and many further people out there that will hear her voice in the future and be absolutely blown away.
Death In Texas is currently signed to Last Meal Records, and I definitely feel that this progressive pop band from London has a very big future ahead. If ‘Oil & The Water‘ is anything to go by then this is most certainly a band with a huge amount to offer, and it’ll be interesting to see what 2013 has in store for the band as they continue to tour the country and look to release more music.
Rating
[Rating:4/5]
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.