Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Mention the word Oklahoma to the average person from Britain and Howard Keel singing baritone against a grainy American backdrop would very possibly be high upon the list of watchwords used to describe the Sooner State. For the more historically minded, the former Native American land would throw up images of both national importance, the swarming despair of the Dust Bowl era and internal political division that had far reaching ramifications, which ever thought is mentioned, Oklahoma is a state that never quite springs to mind when thinking of a place to visit, nestled as it is a place firmly caught between East and West Coast sophistication and artistic endeavour.
That though is a shame, for out of the Sooner State three young lads have started something tangible and musically on the edge of a storm. Rock trio Ripple Green might not be a name that catches the ear of the British Rock fan still clinging on to the notion that Rock only comes out the East and West Coast schools, the hurricane lands of Texas or perhaps as far north as Chicago, yet as their single Timepiece shows, America may be a big place but the Rock vein is not an exclusive club that the likes of New York, San Francisco or Pittsburgh can enjoy, the effect, rippling as it must, can come out of anywhere.
Longing for home may have been the initial quest when the band started writing this single but it’s that gracious friend and foe of Time and how people infiltrate your own segment of it that rushes out from behind each stirring note aimed with unnerving confidence and ability.
The way that the band use the lyrics is one as if confronting a lover over the way they make tea in the morning, it is with the tenderness of interest after the night before that revolves around the song, always probing innocently but the undercurrent of electricity rifles through the air and stirs a wonderful sense of agitation that might get missed by some but will resonate fully by those with keener ears.
Oklahoma may not have given much to the world in the past, but in Ripple Green, that could all change.
Timepiece is released on July 6th.
Ian D. Hall