There are those rare records out there that resonate in the mind and body in a way that moves beyond well-worn categories of consciousness like good vs. evil, happy vs. sad, sensual vs. ascetic, panic-inducing vs. soothing and OXA’s COMING FOR GOD is one of them…
…which may sound a bit grandiose but in fact the EP is a rather economical affair which nevertheless manages to wrings maximum impact from minimal means over the course of five austere tone poems stuffed to the gills with theatrical twists, fantastical vocalizations, and intricate musicianship courtesy of Kendra Walkuski (guitar and vocals), Vincent Blackshadow (bass and production), Bryn Turney (viola), and Grant Meyer (drums)…
…plus it’s got a narrative through-line to boot all about devils and other deities locked in mortal conflict (Vincent convincingly plays the role of the devil on stage) tho’ they share patriarchal hubris and vanity in common (see below for more details on the overarching story) with OXA’s bandmates likewise locked in intense musical dialogue with intertwined lines moving in harmony at times but elsewhere in roiling, tension-filled counterpoint in an ornate “pas de deux times two” and no wonder the band’s logo is comprised of the three letters O-X-A superimposed over one another resulting in an archaic-looking symbol that would make for a great tattoo…
…and if you wanna get a good sample what we’re talking about just check out “Burgeon of Sanity” (“Burgeon” is a term referring to a bud or young shoot in the botanical sense) a song that opens with an unadorned cyclical chordal figure on guitar accented by slithering trills on viola (soon echoed in the vocals) as the drums pound out a steady, hypnotic beat and the question is raised: “Why do I always have to / prove that I am sane?” which is a common query of womenfolk in general and for good reason too seeing as irrational men routinely receive a pass or even a pat on the back…
…at which point the bass responds with unsettled, sinuous melodic movement which only amplifies the inquisitive tone established in the opening lyric with the next line further elaborating, “I used to think that if I got on my knees and prayed / I would be saved” with the use of “used to” likely stemming from the fact that religious organizations have long been at the forefront of questioning women’s sanity tho’ here we should add a disclaimer that this lyrical exegesis is merely our own hot take so as not to reify the notion of patriarchal over-reach…
…at which point the guitar shifts into a more folksy, traditional finger-picking style but with any associated family-first traditionalism subverted as the song’s narrator expounds upon the willful ignorance of their mother (“she let her thoughts rot”) and the conservative orthodoxy of their father (“now he’s stuck / in the glue / of a world / we should never go back to”) with all this taking place in the first minute of a nearly five-minute song…
…that ends up being quite the journey just like the EP itself as it moves thru a tango-like syncopated section with some impressive bass runs and vocal melismatics to a straight-up waltz section as the song’s dynamics likewise ebb and flow from a penultimate big build-up section to a stark a cappella coda as OXA interpolates the centuries-old bedtime prayer “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” concluding with the lines “and if I die / before I wake / I know my mind / will not take / from any vain / god or hell”)…
…with Kendra and cohorts likewise taking familiar musical shapes and twisting them to their own means esp. in the intervallically adventurous vocalizing which lands somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram comprised of Kate Bush’s elastic ululations, Appalachian style yodeling, medieval Bulgarian women’s choirs and the piercing, trilling tones of ancient Swedish herding calls and in case you think we’re just b*ll-shitting re: the latter you should know that Kendra herself references Kulning as a musical influence…
…with all this intersectionality bringing us back to our opening point and COMING FOR GOD just as easily be interpreted as a series of soothing gothic lullabies or unsettling Morphine-like folk-horror hymns or deconstructive avant-garde chamber music sung in Sprechgesang and heck who knows what you’ll make of it with even the EP’s title phrase amenable to multiple readings whether in terms of a euphoric, gospel-tinged “coming with joy to meet my Lord!” or a more sacrilegious POV as in “you’ve pissed me off, God, so cash me outside or else I’m coming for you” or it could have something to do with something entirely more lascivious yet holy “brought to heaven by lust”…
…with OXA’s lyrics confronting everything from environmental degradation on the EP’s opening title track (“then the drought came ever-peeling / and made her earth into hay / oh how long did the river once run / how tall did the trees once grow?”) to the postmortem fever-dream that follows with the narrator having committed suicide (“now she’s here with a gun / the last thing she will ever know”) equivalent to the last movement of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique so maybe it’s best we take it back to the source here with Kendra having being kind enough to send us some ancillary notes to the record which turns out to be a “concept EP” of sorts featuring a continuous story arc but one with enough space and ambiguity for anyone to interpret their own way so have at it…
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A contemplation of divinity, the Devil, and self-discovery, our debut album Coming For God is a story of the pursuit of salvation by a young woman questioning the command of the omnipresent god she was raised to know as true. Struggling under the rigidity of religion, she takes her own life, only to find herself lost in a hellish dreamscape, seduced into holding the devil’s hand. In a continuous, surreal sequence, she encounters her past and present selves, witnesses the cyclical expanse of time, dons the mask of a new face, and ultimately discovers and reclaims her own authority within the sublimity of existence. The final song could be interpreted as either the devil’s lingering voice, still tempting her even after she’s gained self-awareness, or as her definitive break from a relationship with the concept of God.
And finally some further background notes on OXA itself as an entity for you to check out before or during or after you ride off into the transcendent realms of their music:
OXA–is the preface for anything that contains oxygen, or at length, anything composed of the essential element for life as we know it to succeed. With every inhalation of song, I’m reminded that music making is as ingrained in our survival as these atomic connections that bind existence together.
OXA is a Brooklyn-based band with a bohemian folk-rock sound. With equal parts beauty and angst, OXA’s sound is reminiscent of a religious baptism gone eerie, showering the audience with alluring vibrations and devilish tones. With professional training in theater and voice, OXA’s composer and vocalist Kendra Walkuski infuses her singer-songwriter style with an opera-rock twist. Allowing the audience to reminisce of the transcendence brought by Scandinavian kulning and artists such as Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. Add in the demonic pulse of the baseline, bleeding chords of the guitar, tribal sounds of the drums and the eerie yet touching cries of the viola, and you have OXA.
