Having reviewed Buffalo Boy’s single Rabbit back at the start of March I was intrigued to see what this 6 track EP was like. For those of you who haven’t read the previous review Buffalo Boy is a one man band who writes and records everything himself at home, I’ve seen plenty of examples over the years of times when being a one man band has worked out really well, and times when its not worked out so well at all, from my previous experience of Buffalo Boy I’m expecting something closer to the former than the later, so lets give it a listen.
The opening track “Dreaming On” sets the tone nicely and as I expected, it is – appropriately for the title – a very dream like sort of sound, like a trippy summer day dream, there’s lots of layers here interacting nicely with each other, the song starts with a nice spacey sounding guitar intro and a simple drum groove that does push the song on at a good sort of relaxed strutting pace, the bass line is very minimal but punchy and locks in to the groove nicely the vocals really do slot in nicely when they come in and like most of the guitars are coated in a nice thick layer of reverb, its a nice opener, that sets the tome really well.
“Ocean Wandering” is track 2 and was also a previous single from the EP so I have heard this one before, we’re still on that spaced out trippy vibe, but I guess you could say we’re now in more of a traditional song structure, the vocals and guitars are still drenched in reverb, there’s a bit more groove to the bass line in this tune though although the drums are still playing a nice but simple repetitive groove, again its good, there’s nothing complicated about this song, its lots of nice parts layered up well, very much a case of the sum of the parts is greater than the whole
we’re on to the third track and its the one I’m most familiar with having reviewed “Rabbit” previously, again its nice and light and dreamy sounding, this song makes use of the spaces between verses and choruses a bit more effectively, working the dynamics really well to build suspense and gives parts more impact when they kick in.
Fourth track up “stranger times” has got my attention as it fades in with a more solid fuzzed up riff, don’t think Buffalo Boy has drifted in to stoner rock by any means though, its still light and trippy just with a more discernible “riff” to kick things off, the drums are a bit more straight and driving in this one too, its a nice way of mixing things up so the EP isn’t too samey but without varying too much from the formula, there’s some nice spacey keyboard sounds to keep it all in the same vibe.
Breathe is the fifth track up and the keyboard intro certainly has a more 80’s vibe on this short 1 minute 20 blast of synth atmospherics, this would sound right at home on the Stranger Things soundtrack
The EP is rounded out with “yesterday” which has a bit more of a bounce to it with a driving bass drum coming in nicely in the choruses along with a nice walking bass line to push the song along well with a nice little groove there’s a nice little drop-out section to give the song some more dynamics later on, nice tune this one, it finishes the EP off well with the sound of the sea washing ashore to end it all
If your in to chilled, psychedelic, tripped out dreamy sounding music that mixes 80’s sounding keyboards with what sounds like the stone roses got really high and had a jam this is the kind of thing that might be for you. To me it sounds like the perfect music for a summer stroll through crowds of people in a park that ends on a beach relaxing in the sunshine with a nice cold beer, its travelling music, but travelling at a gentle place enjoying the simple things in life. go give it a listen.
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