The Oscillation - Wasted Space

Wasted Space is the second album in 2018 from Demian Castellanos’s The Oscillation. The other one, U.E.F., was great. Wasted Space is said to be a continuation of that album and a ‘meditation on the nature of existence in the face of what can be insurmountable odds.’

Entity kicks in like Bowie’s Fashion with its huge, pumping bass-line, noisy guitar and dancey drums. There is a vocal but no discernible tune; the playing, however, is brilliant and it’s a strong opener. The title track is next and has a slow build up with noises and disembodied voices before more Bowie (or George Murray) bass and a Joy Division drum beat seize control. Castellanos’s vocal only comes in half way through. As with Entity, the vocal is little more than the title chanted but the track is another engaging one. An industrial pulse starts Visions Of Emptiness and I do get quite a lot of Nine Inch Nails from this record, it’s the same kind of Industrial-Electronic Dystopia but with pop elements. When the track gets moving it becomes a danceable Modern Shoegaze track.

Drop has a Station To Station feel to start but breaks down to a bit of a banger driven by a huge bass-line. The bass playing – presumably by Castellanos – is brilliant throughout this album. On this track I am reminded of the way The Brian Jonestown Massacre combine Psychedelic elements with a real 90s Dance sensibility – Drop wouldn’t sound out of place on a Chemical Brothers record. The Human Shell is a total change of pace, this time it’s like a combination of Modern Shoegaze and Angelo Badalamenti. It’s Castellanos’s most complete vocal on the album. With the effects on his voice, it does sound a little like Future Pop. The drums and bass are much more subdued as the song ebbs and flows over 8 minutes. The final track is the big fella, 14 minutes of Luminous Being – almost a third of the album. It starts slowly with dreamy, synth chords and Psychedelic guitar. Slowly a pulsing rhythm forms and takes over. The 90s Dance influence is much more on the Trance side – The Orb or System 7. The drums arrive after over four minutes, playing a Pink Floyd shuffle. From there onwards it is like Pink Floyd and John Carpenter with the suggestion of Mike Oldfield. It’s a huge, atmospheric piece with some great chord changes.

Wasted Space is half Psychedelic/Dance bangers and half Psychedelic/Trance atmospheric pieces.  I can hear Nine Inch Nails, Slowdive, Bowie and the Chemical Brothers on the first half and Pink Floyd, The Orb and 70s Synth Soundtracks on the second. It’s a great mixture – rave and come down. Castellanos is quietly carving out a nice little niche for himself somewhere between Modern Psychedelia and Dance music.