STANLEY ODD

 STANLEY ODD @ The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow – 16th February 2011 

 Any doubts harboured by possible sceptics in the Captain’s Rest crowd tonight are quickly dispelled as Solareye and the band take the stage and open the set with ‘Winter of Discontent,’ the third of the six tracks on STANLEY ODD’S stunning new EP. Everyone agrees – this white boy can rap!

The set tonight comprises eleven songs (including the obligatory encore) made up of the new ‘Pure Anti Hero Material’ EP and five from the aforementioned album ‘Oddio.’ It’s a heady mix of pointed political and social comment, interspersed with an ultra dry, at times wicked sense of humour – not forgetting the uber danceable beats that have the crowd bouncing in union with Solareye. This all climaxes with a rousing rendition of ‘The Numbness’ that has the crowd beaming wildly as they return the shout of ‘Don’t get caught in The Numbness’ to the front man’s mic-thrusting. 

But it’s most certainly not all about rapper Solareye. What makes STANLEY ODD so different, so good and so unique is that they perform to a ‘live’ backing. The five others making up this Edinburgh based band are tight as a Paisley Buddy’s pockets. Vocalist Veronika Electronika has the most soulful voice this side of Motown, while keyboard player T-Lo vies with Solareye in the extrovert stakes. In the ‘back line’ bassist and occasional synth programmer AdMack provides a solid (erm) base onto which the songs are built while drummer Samson seamlessly knits all together. And although tonight you have to peer behind the speaker stacks on the small stage to see him, Rune Dawg fires out the great big chunky guitar riffs and effects that have the crowd jumping. 

Right now, I can’t think of a band whose playing and vocal skills compliment each other to the extent of STANLEY ODD, and would highly recommend checking them out if you ever have the opportunity of doing so. 

(Yeah, OK – so this vid’s not from the show, but my camera broke! So here’s a video of ‘The Numbness’ that has some ‘sort of’ live shots!)

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