Some email subjects manage to draw one’s attention more than others – it took the words “Phoenician Sailors” for me to give Ophite’s promo kit email an in-depth look, mainly because I live in the city of Byblos which was one of the quintessential Phoenician port cities and is nowadays the most famous one – I got curious to see if the band’s music had some Middle Eastern fusion to it.
The Middle Eastern fusion was not there, nevertheless there was definitely a fun mix of several other musical styles; Rock, Pop and even Funk got into the mix and I was suddenly having an “olrite” morning listening to this young (and slightly weird) band.
Here’s an excerpt about the band
“Ophite’s music is situated on the borders of grunge, blues, groove and pop music. For the sake of sincerity, it knows no boundaries. Tones of liberty can be heard in it, as well as in its lyrics. In October 2014, the band made its first video clip « Phoenician sailors », excerpted from the highly anticipated EP Basic mistakes, recorded at the Figure 8 studio (to be released on Monday, 23rd February 2015).”
Without further ado, “Phoenician Sailors” (view it on Youtube if you don’t see the video below or don’t generally like iframes – what a picky picky person you are in that case):
I thought The EP was enjoyable as a first listen, keeping in mind that it is an EP and not a studio album – there is definitely potential and a good range since Ophite plays ear-friendly music. At times I wished the songs had an additional male vocalist because the music needed that male energy, like on the “Basic Mistakes” song which has a Red Hot Chili Peppers kinda feel yet missed some of RHCP’s energy. Another standout track is “The One In My Head” which has a 90s Grunge feel alongwith some Funk Rock.
Ophite’s “Basic Mistakes” EP is quite good and fun for an EP; it sure helps that the band mixes things up with their genre mix of Grunge, Funk Rock and even radio friendly Pop – check out the band’s links below.
