Okploide; a band from France whom I had never heard of. When looking at their fancy promo sheet I can’t help noticing everything seems a little dated with releases and reviews from 2001 and earlier. When popping the two track demo in my cd player I’m not expecting anything big to blur out of my stereo speakers. I was wrong: very, very wrong.

This just might be the best demo I’ve heard in my whole life. Sure; I don’t listen to demos daily but I own a couple. I can’t think of a reason a label just wouldn’t sign them. Describing their sound is fairly easy yet always incomplete as Okploide has a clear own sound. Think the Shandon playing their punk rock with horns without the emo, spiced up with a good dose NOFX and even a bit Less than Jake. It’s really impressive how Okploide mixes the horns and the punk rock, because we all know how hard that is. My opinion is that most bands just fail when including horns as they are trying too hard to stay away from the ska or the horns just sound completely out of place. Okploide has found a way to include powerful and very supportive horns (they act like a very skilled second guitar) without coming even close to ska or sounding cheesy. Their brand of catchy punk rock and a bit of pop fronted by outstanding Spanish (mind they are from France; a very surprising fact. The members must be very multifunctional…) has that European vibe to it yet is able to rock every American band of their socks.

The only complaint I have is that there are only two songs on here. It bugs me that I can’t make a final conclusion and therefore it keeps the rating in the 80’s. Both tracks are equally strong and are downloadable from their website free of charge. Do me a favour and tell everybody about this band; this piece of potential has to be acknowledged! I will keep on following them for sure; let’s hope a label picks these guys up so they can tour Europe soon. Can’t be soon enough for me…

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