Review: Evan Carson – Ocipinsky

Style: progressive rock, post-rock, folk (clean vocals)
Review by: Sam
Recommended for fans of: Iamthemorning, Lunatic Soul, good music
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: July 1, 2019

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the Missed Albums 2019 issue of The Progressive Subway]

So Stephen and Jonah have been screaming at me for months to listen to this album. At first it was just a “Sam try this”, but when I wrote that one rant on the lack of prog-folk metal to r/progmetal they went with the same message, but then in capital letters. So when I saw I had this bookmarked for missed albums of course I had to be the one to review it.

…and, as it turns out, Stephen and Jonah were screaming at me for a reason, because this album is good y’all, though not for the reasons you expect. Folk this definitely is, but metal, it most certainly is not (I know, I should be more strict on this, but ugh this is so good and it features Jim Grey like cmon). In actuality it’s a solo project led by a drummer… That’s not something you see often. It definitely shines through in how rhythmically driven the songs are. Even the melodies tend to be very rhythmical in nature. It’s quite a minimalist approach in this album. Most of the drumming I believe is done on a cajón and there’s barely any guitar work on the album. The cajón and the piano are at the core of most things happening. The rest of the soundscape is filled out by a bunch of other instruments for a very folk-y ambience. With very post-rock songwriting the songs center around crescendos instead of a verse-chorus structure which gives a very flowing character to the music.

This album is like a small mountain stream dancing on the rocks. It’s gentle and beautiful, yet it can carve out the deepest valleys with its power (provided it doesn’t dry up). The production is absolutely fantastic too, giving a mix with rich, warm tones and great sense of spacing for each element. The singers do a fantastic job too. Like I mentioned Jim Grey has a guest performance on the song “Otriad” and he absolutely nails it as always. The more post rock-character of the music brings to mind his work in Arcane (RIP) a bit. But there are multiple singers (male and female) on Ocipinski and Evan surely brought the most out of them. 

I have to congratulate Evan for this absolutely fantastic album. It’s a huge achievement and despite it containing no metal elements whatsoever, I think any prog fan, or any music fan for that matter, would do themselves a favor in listening to Ocipinski. And yes, that includes your parents and your crazy hermit uncle.

Recommended tracks: Shards, Otriad, The Fireflies of Falaise
You may also like: I WISH I COULD TELL YOU
Final verdict: 9/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page

Label: Independent

Evan Carson is:
– Evan Carson … Of course! (bodhrán, percussion, music, vocals)
With help from:
– Gleb Kolyadin (piano, keyboards)
– Karl James Pestka (violin, viola)
– Graham Coe (cello)
– Toby Shaer (flute, whistle)
– Charlie Cawood (zither, cuatro, bouzouki, oud, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass)
– Chris Heales (electric guitar, bass)
– Joshua Franklin (electric bass, keyboards)
– Archie Moss (melodeon)
– Georgia Lewis (vocals)
– Jim Grey (vocals)
– Hannah Sanders (vocals)
– Ben Savage (vocals)