Name: Standing Outside, Looking In by Simon Oakley
Duration: 4 min 17 s
Description: Simon Oakley is a singer/songwriter/composer that hails from East Sussex, England. With a passion for music that runs deep in his veins, he has been creating a unique blend of alternative, new wave, classic, gothic and desert rock. His new EP, Standing Outside, Looking In launches on April 5th 2024 on all digital streaming platforms

An early era Cult compilation.  Featuring Southern Death Cult, Death Cult, and The Cult respectively.  All songs curated by Vision In Cairo.  8/21/21

Tracks:
Southern Death Cult - Moya
Death Cult - Horse Nation
The Cult - Go West
The Cult - Big Neon Glitter
The Cult - Spiritwalker
Southern Death Cult - Fatman
Death Cult - Gods Zoo
The Cult - Little Face
The Cult - 83rd Dream
Southern Death Cult - False Faces (Peel Session)
The Cult - Ghost Dance (Radio Session)
The Cult - Hollow Man
Death Cult - Brothers Grimm
Southern Death Cult - The Crypt
The Cult - Dreamtime
The Cult - Rain
Southern Death Cult - The Girl
Death Cult - Christians
The Cult - Resurrection Joe
The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
Death Cult - Gods Zoo (These Times)

THE CULT 1981-1985

Here's a rehearsal tape from mid-1989, preparing for the Sonic Temple tour. Spector bass through TurboRat pedal into Ampeg SVT + 8x10 :)The guitar is unusually low in the mix ;)

The Cult- American Horse

From a rehearsal for the Sonic Temple tour Oct 1989. In which I get widdly and Ian gets humorous

The Cult- Sun King

Having finished recording Sonic Temple, it was time for the Cult to go touring. But we had hired session drummer Mickey Curry for the album, and had no full-time drummer. So we advertised and waded through piles of CVs and demo tapes. Finally, auditions were held with only two: Chris Taylor, the drummer with producer Bob Rock's band, and Matt Sorum, a relatively unknown drummer from LA. These rough recordings show why Matt got the job :)

Matt Sorum auditions for The Cult, Mar 1989 (1)

Matt Sorum auditions for The Cult, Mar 1989 (2)

Matt Sorum auditions for The Cult, Mar 1989 (3)

Simon Oakley is a singer/songwriter/composer that hails from East Sussex, England. With a passion for music that runs deep in his veins, he has been creating a unique blend of alternative, new wave, classic, gothic and desert rock. His new EP, Standing Outside, Looking In launches on April 5th 2024 on all digital streaming platforms

Standing Outside, Looking In

An upcoming EP release from Simon Oakley is a very lush rock sounding record but it also boasts a certain kind of vastness in its undertone and brings elements of everything from post punk to much heavier tones into play but there are also elements of the record that make it feel almost like a concept release of sorts and songs have strange ways of interconnecting with each other and this is only one of the reasons to listen to the EP in full.

The Standing Outside, Looking In EP has plenty of surprises around its corners and a lot of them send you off into different places and the record as a whole lets you sort of escape and has a wonderful way of pulling you away from your surroundings which I adore because you don't get it that often these days.

Not only does this record hit with a harder and heavier rock tonality at times, but it also brings together so many different influences and one release from that classic hard rock sound to a cinematic and more open progressive style, even punk rock shows face from time to time and it's all delivered with this particular attitude that you just get attached to.

Another reason that you need to listen to this record in full is simply because if you don't then you're not getting the full spectrum of what it actually has to offer.

There's a slew of different song writing approaches here and each one of them sounds incredibly authentic and the aesthetic for them is always nailed.

There's even a softer and more subtle '90s pop rock style with certain tracks delivered and those are the ones that at times, give me hints of nostalgia because I grew up with a lot of that stuff along with other music.

This record has plenty of guitar hooks strewn across its existence and I really get into that kind of stuff because I feel like good rock music has lost some of that element and is always focused on that chorus or a vocal hook which is totally fine, but at times I really miss the musical hook aspect of rock and roll so, I was really pleasantly surprised with all of the great hooks musically that are given off on this record.

By the time you even get halfway through the six-track record you begin to expect the unexpected because of the range of rock that's actually portrayed and it reminds me of the days when you would hear a song on the radio and you would go and buy the album or the EP at the record store because even though you heard a certain track that made you buy the record, once you got it, you would listen to the whole damn thing and this is something that a lot of the younger generations unfortunately don't understand.

This is why it brings me a bit of joy and a little bit of nostalgia to hear an actual six track EP get released at once because we live in such a single-based society that it doesn't happen as often as it used to or as much as it should in my opinion.

Simon is uncanny and his ability to bring his different influences to the table and although he's not reinventing the wheel by any means, he's putting his own spin on things at the same time and a lot of this stuff pays homage to the music he grew up listening to as well.

Or at least it seems that way.

This was an incredibly well woven record that hits the sweet spots for so many rock genres that anyone into rock music in general should really love it.

I think my favorite track of this release is the actual title track of it because this gives one of the best examples of all the influences combined in one because you have the vast rock element, the progressive element and some hard rock as well and there's even a remix at the end of the record of this track.

Standing Outside, Looking In

Simon Oakley

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