We are all the product of our influences. This is a mantra Uone and Western honours on their debut full length ‘The Lone Wranglers’. The ten track release is a bricolage of various media: the pulp fiction of Quentin Tarantino films; the drama of Ennio Morricone scores; the psychedelia of The Doors and Pink Floyd; and a healthy nod to the spectacle of spaghetti westerns.
Uone is veteran of a decade’s worth of international club and festival performances, and over the last 5 years the Australian has been honing his studio skills with impressive precision. His epic 2018 Balance Presents compilation was a sprawling 2CD event featuring his deft production touch across 22 tracks. Western AKA Nick West is an extremely accomplished music professional servicing high profile clients in TV, movies and advertising from his Sydney-based Smith & Western studio. His talents are illuminated throughout with live vintage-sounding keys, introspective guitar recordings and other organic instrumentation.
‘The Lone Wranglers’ sounds like no other, and flourishes of psychedelia and tribal deep house conceals a futuristic interpretation on the classic American frontier. Across the release live guitars and tribal drums envelope the listener, like you are experiencing it in person at the most absorbing concert ever performed. This is by design: every instrument on the album has been recorded live, and weaved into the fabric of many tracks are spoken samples taken from an impressive collection of mediums. It is almost like taking a walk into Uone and Western’s combined subconscious.
Track opener ‘Let Red Go’ is one of three interludes. It is an ambient teaser into their creative world, an neat synopsis of what’s laying ahead featuring clips of everything which makes the album special: Big drums, engaging melodies ,and spaghetti western guitars and samples.
Featuring the intimate vocals of guest vocalist Briony Taylor-Brooks, ‘Kaos of Time’ is a rumination on love, technology and finding salvation through cosmic rather than technological connection. The vocals float along an alluring deep house track, while guitar licks accentuates the message. If your local church had a stage for erotic dancers this would be the entrance song.
The deep house vibe is continued on ‘Culture of Knights’. A soothing acoustic guitar builds a gentle atmosphere complete with shakers and wood block instruments. Just like the old Knights of the Roundtable, there is an air of community here, a bunch of friends sitting around a campfire having a jam. You can almost smell the campfire as the embers illuminate the twilight.
Big tribal drums preface the urgent message of title track ‘The Lone Wranglers’. Tonto is the mythical right hand man of the Lone Ranger, and for our Lone Wranglers he embodies what might be the most important message on this release: always choosing compassion and forgiveness over vengeance. Chanting vocals and melodic flourishes adds to the message of solicitude. Music has the power to heal, and ceremony is a tool towards forgiveness.
‘Cotton In Clouds’ is the second interlude and acts as a halfway point bookmark. It is an ambient take on Uone & Westerns popular 2017 track ‘Cotton Picker’, released on Uone’s Beat & Path records. With the soft crackling of fire in the back ground, West’s beautifully played keys is comforting and exquisite all at once, a soft exploration and meditation on stress-free times.
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey muses on our relationship with technology and the potential pitfalls laying ahead. This is the theme laying at the heart of ‘Odyseey 9000’. Giving in to the melancholic arpeggiator driving the track is therapeutic and introspective all at once, beautifully accentuated by the soft, grooving beat. There is restrained touch to it all, and with the introduction of bright rising strings and choir-sounding vocals this is more than just painting a picture, this is a tonic for emotional clarity.
The the third and final interlude is ‘Forest Walker’. It take its inspiration from a jingle Nick’s 7 year old daughter wrote, her first composition after learning to play the piano. And you can hear the youthful exuberance in the melody: care-free and happy in a way only a seven-year-old can transmit. Uone’s field recordings of a peaceful forest stroll accentuates the feeling of freedom, a drifter finding solace in nature. We finish on an absolute winner, and ’The Last Showdown’, like the name would suggest, is an exciting moment, a victory lap of sorts to celebrate everything leading up to now. It’s all here: the big drums, sexy plucked guitars, hushed vocal samples, uplifting melodic phrasings and, above all, oodles of vibe. This is the showdown we have been building towards – and it is glorious.
