Miles From OZ is the brainchild of Brooklyn producer Henry Veloso, who records under the name “H5Work”, and his new eleven track disc is an intriguing mix of 80’s dance pop, 90’s alt-rock and Latin swing. The foundation for all of Veloso’s music centers around a hip-shaking dance groove and Veloso credits fellow Brazilians Djavan, Caetano Veloso and João Bosco along with Stanley Clarke, Paul McCartney, Bernard Edwards and Donald Fagan with providing him inspiration.

The disc leads off with “Feel”, which is a big 80’s dance-pop number with a swinging beat (and without the overbearing 80’s production) and some Peter Frampton style vocoder vocals. Things slow down slightly on the next track, “Dream”, but Veloso mixes things up by bringing in some woodwinds and a female vocalist that sounds remarkably similar to Kay Hanley (Letters to Cleo). The stylistic changes continue with “Out of Reach” – a slow burning torch song – and “Chained” – a mid-tempo pop song that wraps together a 70’s funk bass line and beat, accordion and big female harmonies. Three alt-rock numbers punch up the mid-part of the disc - “Miles from OZ”, “Damaged Goods” and “Dead Presidents”. “Miles from Oz” uses aggressive instrumentation (predominately keys and drums) to build up a wall of noise, which falls back to some Trevor Rabin style guitar work. “Damaged Goods” has a pounding industrial dance beat and kiss-off lyrics. “Dead Presidents” backs off on the aggression and is a bluesy rock number with some harmonica, horns and jazzy guitar lines. The final three tracks end the disc on a “Latin” note. The tracks “Zona” and “Real Things” are big Latin-based dance numbers with popping drums and big horns and the final track, “Tramp Stamp”, is an instrumental jazz fusion number.



There isn’t a lot of detail about H5Work either online or with the press kit that got mailed out. Henry is cited “as a composer, arranger and session (live and studio) bassist/guitarist” so I have to assume this is a studio-only project. Miles From Oz makes for a good “drive time” disc and there is enough complexity and intricacy in music that the disc holds up to a more careful listen.

Links:
H5Work @ ReverbNation