Obverse
Obverse


4.0
excellent

Review

by artificialbox CONTRIBUTOR (39 Reviews)
January 26th, 2025 | 20 replies


Release Date: 01/24/2025 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Dan Briggs, Chris Allison, and Emily Hopkins team up to give you the ultimate ( ( ( h a r p p r o g ) ) ) experience.

Do you know the Muffin Man? How about Harp Lady, the internet's busiest harpist and effect pedal aficionado? Emily Hopkins (aka Harp Lady aka emilyharpist aka emilyharpist2) has teamed up for a surprise collaborative EP with Chris Allison, most notably recognized for his work with jazz-fusion outfit Plini, and Dan Briggs, the low-end groove technician of Between the Buried and Me fame. Together, this harp, bass, and drum trio offers up a fresh and ethereal take on instrumental progressive-ambient-harp-jazz... metal? Yeah.

Obverse certainly does not aim to overwhelm with distortion or speed. In fact, I often found myself pining for a bit more growl in Briggs' bass tone, but the rhythms in which Obverse (the entity) create still exhibit a knotty sense of technicality that seems obvious considering two-thirds of the members' progressive metal backgrounds. Fingers are swift and precise; time signatures tend to leave you holding on a second longer than you expect, but it's all so chillllll. Playful really is the key word here. Briggs' and Allison's rhythm work is astute in its virtuosity, no doubt, but they are here first and foremost to set the stage and provoke reactions from Hopkins' electric harp, and they don't make it easy for her. Briggs and Allison collapse entire suns for Hopkins to dance around like a butterfly with wings made of cosmos. She does so with grace and fluidity.

Hopkins' harp is a technicolor joy that takes on many forms throughout these four movements while always remaining distinctly harplike. Of course, such a wide array of frequencies combined with the ability to run specific note ranges through separate effect chains would create such a diverse and shimmering show of lights, and this is where Hopkins' extensive pedal collection absolutely comes in clutch. The tones on this EP are just dripping in boutique reverbs, fluttering echos, and sunburst fuzz. Special shout-out to those ASMR popping sounds near the middle of "Obverse II” that sound like the rippled implosions of tiny stars; you'll know when you hear them. Hopkins' harp lays atop the rhythm like a living, breathing organism, exhaling atoms into the breeze, and Briggs, who sounds equally opportunistic in his shapeshifting, must have also shared in the plunder of Hopkins' pedal stash. Allison's drumming speaks for itself, of course; his dance is intricate and plays a vital role in linking the pieces of Obverse together, but sometimes a perfectly timed and warbled string pluck over a cymbal hit does give the impression of mutual metamorphosis.

Obverse does have a large improvisational component to it, but you would hardly know it. These four songs are set up with a series of well-defined crux points to give them each a sense of shape and direction, some of which are just too dang clever and smooth to not be planned. Like the many catch-and-release moments where the trio gets hung up and flung in unison, coalescing into an organic mass of noise and refracted light before a sudden rhythm shift sends them skittering back to their respective corners of the galaxy. Chris Allison, Dan Briggs, and Emily Hopkins have created a wonderful proof of concept here that shows just how well they can play off of each other, and I sincerely hope they don't stop here. There is so much more that could be done with this formula.



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user ratings (17)
3.7
great


Comments:Add a Comment 
artificialbox
Contributing Reviewer
January 26th 2025


3205 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

lfg 2025 has finally begun



https://obversemusic.bandcamp.com/album/obverse

Emily's video about the creation of the record:

https://youtu.be/WKAe3fy_D7M?si=PvZuJUSgvAfGR4GF

bellovddd
January 26th 2025


7330 Comments


harp metal. awww shiteee

Beardog
January 26th 2025


5587 Comments


Sounds like something I should check!

RadioSuicide
January 26th 2025


2783 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Love Emily, but sadly this did nothing for me

mkmusic1995
Contributing Reviewer
January 26th 2025


2118 Comments


Hell yeah, great review! I'll have to check this out

artificialbox
Contributing Reviewer
January 26th 2025


3205 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

ty homie!



this EP only gets better the more I listen to it. It's almost impossible to pick up on all the weirdness in one pass.

syco722
January 26th 2025


825 Comments


Obverse III is especially excellent - had no clue this was coming out but I've enjoyed all of Briggs' projects, this is no exception. Very nice review, thanks for bringing attention to this!

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
January 27th 2025


63238 Comments


oh damn hi it is harp lady
will probably check this at some point

Relinquished
January 27th 2025


49214 Comments


damn didn’t know btge collabed with these guys

NightOnDrunkMountain
Contributing Reviewer
January 27th 2025


964 Comments


Liked this a lot, great cover-up as well

botb
January 27th 2025


18858 Comments


Pretty wild collab, sounds interesting

MTObsidian
January 27th 2025


307 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I'd never heard of this harp lady until my friend told me about this project yesterday. And Dan is one of my all-time favorite bassists. So this should be fun, will check

MTObsidian
January 27th 2025


307 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Short and sweet, but very atmospheric and fun. Loved this.

chemicalmarriage
January 27th 2025


4619 Comments


Makes joanna newsome look like a soft ass bitch

I actually love joanna, and this is fresh as fuuuuuck

Good review

Purpl3Spartan
January 27th 2025


9226 Comments


harp guitar pedal lady let's go

Calc
January 28th 2025


17527 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

I miss trioscapes

Dylan620
January 28th 2025


5988 Comments


this ain't half bad!

vult
January 28th 2025


2940 Comments


Saving for later - met Chris Allison at a Plini show in 2023 and hes a solid bloke. Also I can't say I dont have a small crush on Emily.

Dylan620
February 1st 2025


5988 Comments


In a way this kinda feels closer to jazz than rock for me

Djang0
February 4th 2025


1022 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

This is more improvisational and ambiguous sounding than I expected or would've liked. Dan Briggs actually really steals the show as well... I could see some more pointed compositions with more fleshed out harp parts be really killer, hopefully this trio does more



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