Omnia - World of Omnia

*steps up to the microphone*

"Is this thing on?"

*tap tap*

Hello! My name is Wendy and I've just fallen in with this crowd via Ben, with whom I play in a community concert band here in Brisbane. I live with my husband, three daughters and a Puli who does really awesome rug and mop impersonations.

I've been lurking around the shadowy edges of Musooklub for a little while and, via Ben, I have really enjoyed listening to bands that I normally would not have considered or even heard of before. My own musical tastes probably tend a little more towards mainstream (with a side streak appreciation for classical) than most around here, so it's been good for me to get out of my box and look/listen around.

Discovering that I would have a grand total of three days to put together my first contribution (!! no pressure or anything, guys!)  I went scrambling through my music to find something new that I've discovered in the past few months. After (virtually) tossing CDs left and right, I came to Omnia. I saw the band - or more accurately, half the band - performing at a festival we went to last year.

Though I tend to be a lyrics kind of girl, it was the sheer energy of their performance that drew me in to explore more of their work. Omina is latin for "everything" and it is a good reflection of both their over all style (self described as "pagan folk") and of this album in particular, which is a bit of a 'best of' compilation. I love their use of non standard instrumentation. There probably aren't too many other places I'd expect to hear a hurdy-gurdy and a didgeridoo playing together! And as a woodwind player who aspires to "adequate" most weeks, I am also seriously in awe of the flute talent of Steve Sic, one of the founding members of the group.

My favourite tracks are:

#8 - Wytches' Brew - It's just fun and loud, like reading blood and gore Brothers Grimm fairytales as a kid - none of your happily ever after, Disney-fied versions for me, thank you very much!

#9 - The Raven - A mostly spoken word performance of the Edgar Allan Poe narrative poem.

It's not a life changing album and I don't utterly love every single track, but it was something new and different to me and I've enjoyed exploring their other music. On Raman's scale of 'waste of my life' to 'omg so awesome' World of Omina is a 4 for me.


The album is zipped up for you here and if you want to see more about the band you can find their website there.