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Album Review: Oscar Dowling - Free And Easy

Evan Young
StarStarStarStar

"'The Life' is intoxicatingly evil, and by the time instrumental closer 'Motorway' comes, we're still under Dowling's spell."

Oscar Dowling kept busy after previous band New Gum Sarn ended in 2015.

The dark and brooding Free And Easy is the upshot of his spare time; amazingly, the Kiwi's debut solo longplayer. There's echoes of The Drones, Mark Lanegan and Rowland S Howard, though there's also a draw completely individual. Opener The Life is intoxicatingly evil, and by the time instrumental closer Motorway comes, we're still under Dowling's spell. Debut records don't come much more consistent or assured than this.