Oppressed by the Line started as Of Normandy, a 4-track diversion for guitarist Jon Thompson — a chance for him to break out of his shell and try his hand at vocals. Two songs from those original 4-track sessions survived to make it onto his debut release a mini-album entitled “The Cause of the Colour”.

And then there were three…

In the winter of 2001 Jon found himself in a band full of turmoil, which was shedding members like so many feathers. Whittled down to a modest three piece (and not a drummer among them), the lads were in need of a solution. Enter the “fourth member”, a shitty desktop PC and some low-rent software, which was Jon’s introduction to computer based music and production methods (at least the rubber band and duct tape version).

The nameless band wrote and recorded several songs, which would become the basis of their debut record, in a dank cube within a sprawling warehouse complex under the oppressive skies of Houston, TX. Moving into the world of live performance, the band needed a name and decided to take on the name Of Normandy since Jon was the primary singer and songwriter anyway.

The big blue void…

Now familiar with the concepts of producing electronic music, Jon’s interest in his solo project was refreshed, and thus began his transition from 4-track to laptop. After a trip to London, Jon re-christened his project Oppressed by the Line (OBTL). The name is taken from a quote on a placard under a painting by Yves Kleine at the Tate Modern in London. The quote reads, “I adopt the cause of the colour oppressed by the line”. The painting depicts a blue void… Something that Jon felt not only represented his general disposition, but was also a visual representation of his music.

Since making the monumental move from Houston to London in 2004, Jon has brought Oppressed by the Line to the stage supporting such acts as Hood, The Telescopes, Client, Sing-Sing, Logh and Epic45.

That’s all fine and good, but what does OBTL sound like…?

If you made a circuit board out of all your favourite shoegazer records, then made a man out of those circuit boards and gave him a glass of wine on a fire escape high above whatever city that was in Blade Runner twenty years after the fact… or a genetic hybrid of a synthesizer and a warm winter blanket. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.