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Ocean Potion
Ocean Potion
(independent) - 2018
Michael Panontin
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Ocean Potion is the newly formed collab of Mike O'Brien (Zeus) and Jason Haberman (Yukon Blonde). The Toronto-based duo bill their work - I'm guessing half-flippantly - as "music for lazy days at home, for walks with headphones and for sunshine through the car window", which roughly translated means a sound that melds the former band's taut Beatlesque hooks with latter's more straight-up eighties sensibilities.
The guys actually met while on tour together and after returning to the 6ix began a bedroom-to-bedroom project that took up the better part of 2018. "We ended up developing a bit of a flow as we got into it," the pair told blogger Aliiissa. "Jay would record an instrumental piece of music that he would send over to me. Then I would put it on the stereo loud and pace around my apartment while improvising melodies and words. I'd often sing those melodies into my phone and go back over them [and] refine them. Then we'd get together and start adding vocals and overdub more guitars and synths."
Ocean Potion, which features the added heft of Dave Azzolini (Forces) and Jay McCarol (Brave Shores), at times feels almost like two records in one. It's an album rife with well-crafted songs, delicate guitars and slight, mellifluous vocals. But those are placed head to head with crashing drums in a dense, super-trebly mix, something the Flaming Lips experimented with way back in 1999 on their hugely acclaimed The Soft Bulletin disc. It's a ballsy move, and one that can sometimes be as distracting as it is exhilarating.
Still, that lack of musical subtlety aside, Ocean Potion is not without its sonic gems. The wisely chosen first single, 'In the Grass', is gorgeous pop, from its woozy hooks to the swirling synth solo and even the scratchy guitar break two minutes in. Ditto for the bouncy opener 'Anywhere' and the equally thrilling 'Reflection', either of which could serve as a fine seven-inch release. Here's hoping.
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