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Brian Olive

Two of Everything

(Alive; US: 7 Jun 2011; UK: 13 Jun 2011)

Almost three years have passed since Brian Olive emerged from the vault of the Cincinnati pawn-shop-turned-recording-studio he helped build clutching his excellent full-length solo debut. Yet it appears the ex-Soledad Brother hasn’t just been busy touring and helping out friends—most recently as guest player on label-mate T-Model Ford’s album Taledragger—but has also been behind the console developing his knob-twiddling skills. Two of Everything is as complex as it is catchy. Adventurous arrangements employ gauzy synthesizers, flutes, punchy Muscle Shoals-style sax and, in one exemplary case on “Strange Attractor”, what sounds like bagpipes. Olive creates atmospheric layers of sound dappled in splashes of dreamy psych-pop sunshine that, on occasion, bring to mind the top-down grooves of ‘60s Chicago outfit the Buckinghams. Soulful glam-orized R&B stomp is still to be heard on songs such as opener “Left Side Rock” and “Back Sliding Soul”, it’s just tempered with a laid-back vibe that finds Olive mellowing down easy.

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Brian Olive - Left Side Rock Live At The Happy Dog 11/12/2010
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15 Sep 2009
Drawing inspiration from '60s psych-pop, after-hours jazz, and '70s glam stomp, the onetime Greenhornes guitarist and Soledad Brothers multi-instrumentalist steps out of the shadows cast by the Midwest garage-blues scene and into the light on his self-titled debut.
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