Track Listing:
Side A - Puff Puff Pt. 1
Side B - Puff Puff Pt. 2 (puff of smoke)
As published in The Wire, April 2013:
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Oliver Mann
Tin Power
Read Head Dead Bull, 7"
A Country Wedding
Read Head Dead Bull, 7"
Deepest Temple
Read Head Dead Bull, 7"
Puff Puff
Read Head Dead Bull, 7"
"We've reviewed one of this operatic Australian's singles before, but he just completed the sequence of four, so what the hell, here's the whole so-called Rock And Roll Series. Tin Power, the first, combines Mann's baritone with an acoustic guitar in a song with a sense of longing as deep as the ocean. The flip replaces the vocals with harmonica from deep space. A Country Wedding mixes vocals, harmonica and guitar together, along with accordion maybe, for something that's like a lost Tim Hardin/Robbie Basho hybrid. The flip is similarly built but reversed, and recalls - of all things - a few of Jeff Buckley's unfinished tracks. Deepest Temple starts with acoustic guitar again, but there's a percussion thing I can't identify and some woodwinds. Quietly woodsy. The flip has the vocals this time, and not just Mann's, but a female voice as well. The effect is similar to some of those Mezzacane/Bloom collaborations, but only if Kath had a vocal attack more similar to Jane Birkin's. Puff Puff is a return to solo form. A little Basho on the first side, and that great strange harmonica on the flip. Quite a hep run of singles."
Melbourne bass-baritone Oliver Mann’s output is defined by its adherence to the classical canon as much as its re-imagining.
His wanderings into arcane folk and experimental song-writing craft – which have brought about two acclaimed full-length albums - are cues to his artistry as much as his growing classical repertoire.
Visit: OLIVERMANN.COM for more......more
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