OSI - Office of Strategic Influence

A heady blend of influences and approaches as supergroups tend to be, OSI's debut offering Office of Strategic Influence presents the oil and water inclinations of chief songwriters Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos at the point of their greatest bifurcation. Graced by the presence of assorted genre alumni Steven Wilson, Mike Portnoy, and Sean Malone it had quite a diverse cast and was released to general critical approval but never seemed to gain the traction it really needed to take off, a trend line that the project's later albums would continue to ride.

The disc initiates with some of Moore's reliably cryptic samples starting things off before the loud n' proud instrumental workout of "The New Math (What He Said)" begins in earnest, rising in intensity before dropping off into the restrained electronic groove of the title track "OSI" (by the band OSI, off the album O.S.I.). Here is where Moore's vocals kick in and we hear one of the biggest differences between OSI and other prog bands: instead of the usual vibrato soaked wailing you hear from singers in other progressive bands of this ilk (Looking at you Dream Theater!), Moore has a delivery that lands somewhere between Trent Reznor and a very sleepy Steven Wilson, employing a hypnotic near-monotonous range that gives the album a decidedly nocturnal atmosphere. Sean Malone's rich bass tone provides a groovy foundation to heavier numbers like "Head" and "Horseshoes and B-52's" while Moore's distinctive synth lines and creative sound effects lace things with a hazy coat of electronica, alternating between the heavier, more traditional progressive metal passages found throughout. The lyrics provided by Moore, while not explicitly political and in keeping with his typical stream-of-conscious writing style, have a definite fixation on current events of the time without ever straying into earnest criticism or task-taking (the name of both the band and the album is a reference to a real-world US government propaganda office established during the Bush administration), keeping things appropriately mysterious.

In keeping with the alternative style of singing is the general songwriting restraint and dexterity displayed on Office of Strategic Influence. Moore and Matheos as the principal songwriters clearly aren't much interested in colossal progressive "epics" a la Transatlantic or boring displays of technical ability, as the spare (for this genre, at least) runtime of just under 48 minutes coupled with seven of the ten sings clocking in at five minutes or less means that there is little room left for noodling. What's really surprising is how plentifully hook and catchiness is found here - "Head", "OSI" and "Hello, Helicopter!" basically drip with groove-heavy bass lines provided by Malone while "Dirt From a Holy Place" and the middle sections of "ShutDOWN" give the listener plenty to latch onto before the excellent ending coda of "Standby (Looks Like Rain)" passes.

Despite the very different musical preferences of the players, Office of Strategic Influence stands out from the progressive crowd not in spite of, but because of that push-pull tension. It's less cohesive than the later OSI records but not any worse for it as the songwriting and atmosphere here are strong enough to get all the threads through the needle convincingly.

B-