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Omenopus

The Omenopus Soundtrack To Teepee The Space Girl And The Singing Kettle

Review by Gary Hill

This is an unusual release. It's also an unusual entry in the Omenopus catalog. I would not consider it one of my favorites of their stuff, but it does have its charms. It's also not so much a full Omenopus album (although at almost 50-minutes of music, it qualifies), but more of a secondary project. So, one shouldn't expect it to stand as tall as some of their other releases.

This is a soundtrack to a children's book written by Wanda Pierpoint and illustrated by Omenopus main man Lee Potts. As such it works well. You can get the CD at the band's website, and as I understand a version of the book that comes with the CD, but I couldn't find that link. Don't expect a full on space rock album, but rather something artistic and often soundtrack like and you should be pleased.

You will find bonus video footage of this release available at the Music Street Journal Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNQRyyioUog

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2021  Volume 4. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2021.

Track by Track Review
Kettle's Song
This comes in very mellow and rises up gradually. Some vocals come in with only minor accompaniment. It is very artsy. It never really rises above that level. Once the vocals take control, they never relinquish command.
11 Realities
Weird sound effects that seem space based bring this into being. More musical elements join after a time. Vocals join as it continues. This comes closer to something you might call rock music, but it's still more textural and atmospheric in an artsy way. This is a classy piece of art rock.
Say No
I dig the electronic groove of this number. It's melodic and quite satisfying. I'm reminded to a large degree of things like Synergy here. This instrumental piece is classy.
The Others (Inside The Kettle)
The epic of the set, this is half-an-hour long. It comes in with mellow keyboard textures. It gradually rises upward with weird sound effects and other strange atmosphere added to the mix. Some voices and other sounds bring a sense of foreboding and fear. This gets unsettling and might make a good soundtrack to a haunted house attraction if you put parts of it on a loop. This eventually works past that, but never rises above the level of textural backdrop type music. It has some evolution and growth within that heading, though.
Kettle's Song Reprise
As you might imagine, this is based on the opening piece. It's more song-like here, with more musical elements in the mix. That said, there are a number of layers of vocals built into it, too.
  
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