Spun: Shout Out Out Out Out

By Taylor McKee

Shout Out Out Out Out is an Edmontonian group on a one-band mission to prove that a synthesizer can have a heart too. 


Their third full-length album continues from Reintegration Time and the Juno-nominated Not Saying/Just Saying.


With every new album, SOOO endeavour to complete the impossibly difficult task of capturing the sheer immensity of sound that is produced at their concerts. The group’s live shows are spell-binding, but some may feel slightly underwhelmed when listening to their recordings. 


What makes them a consistently relevant band is the fact that the two experiences are inexorably different and each can be enjoyed on their own merits. Tracks like “Wayward Satellite” and “Lessons in Disappearing” come from the closest to a live experience with driving bass and drums and devastatingly catchy synth lines. However, the tracks develop an added quality when listened for their intricate detail, preferably on headphones.


For a band that operates in the dance music genre, there is a haunting quality to the vocoded vocals on these tracks. Singer Nik Kozub is clearly not contented with club hooks and fat bass, there is palpable pathos present on “This Isn’t Helping” and “Total Loss” — the man behind the Moog clearly is a troubled soul. 


The album is not all doom and gloom though, “Never the Same Way Twice” is a crisp dance track tightly wound around methodical drums, and the depressingly-named “Now That I have Given Up Hope, I Feel Much Better” is a syncopated, hand-clap single that contrasts the darker textures of the rest of the album.


Spanish Moss is a vastly entertaining slow-burn of an album that improves with multiple listens. There is an oddly hypnotic quality to this band, the kind of music that is perfect to listen to during long-distance drives — in space.