A fact about American music is that it tends to make its way all over the world; sadly the same doesn’t seem to be true for world music into America. While Canada isn’t exactly far away from the states their music is rarely heard in the U.S., somehow Justin Bieber made it through though. Electronic, pop, indie group Hexes and Ohs hasn’t made its way across the border quite yet, but their latest album, Bedroom Madness might just do it. The duo consists of high school sweethearts Heidi Donnelly and Edmund Lam with the majority of the vocals being headed by Lam. Of the 14 songs on the album Donnelly largely plays the role of backup vocals getting a few words in each song.
However, the less than two minute long “Still Adore You” is sung solely by Donnelly and really makes her absence in the rest of the album stand out as a glaring weakness. The positive thing about the lack of Donnelly vocals is that it is the albums only weakness. Lam’s emotion driven vocals layered over top of electric guitars and synthesizers add a unique sincerity to often hollow genre. Most tracks consist of Lam softly singing with Donnelly’s lyrics overlapping. This slightly odd technique of mixing multiple vocals and instrumentals at the same time creates an almost inner thoughts effect. In “Suspicion” Donnelly’s sporadic words serve as a conscious or subconscious for the main character in the song, resulting in arguably the best track on Bedroom Madness. Despite being released almost two years ago madness still continues to be popular in Canada and still threatens to break in the U.S. of A.
For more information on Hexes and Ohs check out MySpace and get Bedroom Madness now on iTunes!