Deleted Waveform Gatherings “Ghost, He Said” (Rainbow Quartz, 2010)

Copycat pop that’s less than the sum of its influences

Tricky things, influences. Everybody’s got them, whether they like it or not, but most tend to play them down and present themselves as “original”, whatever that means. The thing is of course, they’re normally as obvious as all hell so it’s more a question of what you do with them. And that is where Norway’s Deleted Waveform Gatherings fall down. Essentially a vehicle for one Ovyind Holm, “Ghost, She Said” is not an album anyone even slightly versed in pop past or someone who grew up with it in the first place could listen to in any degree of comfort, because every single track is punctuated by an involuntary “but that’s...”, “that sounds exactly like...” or, worst of all, “that’s nicked from...”

Holm is a magpie amongst magpies, plundering The Beatles, powerpop of all ages, glam rock, ELO, you name it, it’s here. With the exception of “The Shadow Of Your Ego” – a Stones take-off that sounds like something that “Rocks”-era Primal Scream would have thrown away as being too dull and obvious - it’s all done remarkably well but the effect is rather like listening to a Capital Gold or Heart FM broadcast cut up into snippets and glued back together again. That said, it’s probably better to train spot than listen to the lyrics because, although titles like ”Shaman’s Tambourine” and the aforementioned “...Ego” suggest that Holm considers himself a poet rather than a popster the truth is that the words never get any better than bizarre and are generally merely obvious, rather like the whole album.

Date review added:  Saturday, February 06, 2010
Reviewer:  Jeremy Searle
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  Artist MySpace site