Presenting Oppressed By The Line
Oppressed By The Line
Oppressed By The Line



Oppressed By The Line website


Oppressed by the Line started as Of Normandy, a 4-track diversion for guitarist Jon Thompson.

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.

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.

Find out about Club AC30 shows first, never miss out on tickets! Enter your email address to sign up for the AC30 emails:



sign up >>

Oppressed by the Line - The Cause Of The Colour
Oppressed by the Line - The Cause Of The Colour
Monday 23-Jan-06
AC303012 CD Album
£6 inc shipping | add to basket
more info >>

Oppressed by the Line - The Cause Of The Colour
view all releases >>
Club AC30 #70 Poster
Club AC30 #72 Poster
Club AC30 #68 Poster
Beautiful ltd print AC30 posters. Order one, choose a second free. £4 inc shipping.

more info >>
Daniel Land and the Modern Painters - Love Songs For The Chemical Generation

A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (Mute)

The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead (Fat Cat)

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2)

93MillionMilesFromTheSun - 93MillionMilesFromTheSun (Parallax Sounds)

Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This - EP (Mmm... Records)

Maclean - Talker (Maclean)

Fanfarlo - Reservoir (Fanfarlo)

Metric - Fantasies (Metric Productions)

Silversun Pickups - Swoon (Dangerbird Records LLC)


view lots more >>


© Club AC30 2003-2007 | info@clubac30.com