O Children, O. Children
Featured Album
The Frankenstein love child of a couple of '80s Goth titans
London cult darlings O Children may be named after a Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds track, but they sound like the Frankenstein love child of '80s Goth titans Andrew Eldritch and Peter Murphy. Lead singer Tobi O'Kandi has a booming, voice-of-Lucifer baritone that is a dead ringer for those ashen-faced idols of the Batcave set; Gauthier Ajarrista has a penchant for portentous sheets of guitar squall; and Harry James's default bass setting is lugubrious rumble. But what sets O Children apart from fellow gloom merchants like Editors and Interpol is the knowing camp of it all and the anthemic, widescreen production. Take "Ruins," the group's second single, which has all the driving pomp and circumstance of Sisters Of Mercy at their commercial peak, or the debut single, "Dead Disco Dancer," with its galvanizing Peter Hook basslines and O'Kandi adding some Grace Jones rouge to his corpsepaint. For a band that formed from the ashes of a group called Bono Must Die, it's no small irony that the drums often sound like Larry Mullen on "New Years Day" (particularly on "Heels") and Ajarrista's guitar often channels both The Edge and Big Country's bagpipes. O Children is more than just Thatcher-era pastiche, though. The group's pulsating danceability, even as it approaches Birthday Party post-blues atonality on "Radio Waves," would surely make Bela Lugosi spin in his grave.
