'Taiga' is the latest disc from Boredoms related all-girl Japanese avant-rock terrorists OOIOO and is unsurprisingly an odd one. Packaged in a sparkly sleeve that made us all go 'ooooh' (or ooioo?) when it arrived, this is probably the strangest OOIOO album yet, throwing away the poppish structures that made 'Green and Gold' so damn attractive to us in favour of looping tribal rhythms and occasional explorations into mystical prog-psych-folk. Opening with 'Uma' we are treated to three and a half minutes of devastating drumming, Japanese screetching and the occasional synth bleep. There's no need for melody here, the ladies are heading straight for the jugular and intend to cause maximum damage. Then we're straight into 'KMS' some kind of avant-rock take on a cop-show theme possibly, which rises and falls through various incarnations for nine minutes, ending on the effortless noisey art-rock the band are best known for. And I suppose that's what makes OOIOO so successful, they're never happy to stay in one place too long, they seem to be perfectly at home performing three or four songs concurrently - 'GRS' is one part Steve Reich, one part Jamaican steel-drum band, one part girl vocal harmony pop and one part jazz... it works, but only just. When the album finally comes to a close you feel like you've been dragged through a musical hedge backwards, like listening to John Peel's ipod on shuffle - it's diverse but strangely appealing, and just that little bit wrong.
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'Taiga' is the latest disc from Boredoms related all-girl Japanese avant-rock terrorists OOIOO and is unsurprisingly an odd one. Packaged in a sparkly sleeve that made us all go 'ooooh' (or ooioo?) when it arrived, this is probably the strangest OOIOO album yet, throwing away the poppish structures that made 'Green and Gold' so damn attractive to us in favour of looping tribal rhythms and occasional explorations into mystical prog-psych-folk. Opening with 'Uma' we are treated to three and a half minutes of devastating drumming, Japanese screetching and the occasional synth bleep. There's no need for melody here, the ladies are heading straight for the jugular and intend to cause maximum damage. Then we're straight into 'KMS' some kind of avant-rock take on a cop-show theme possibly, which rises and falls through various incarnations for nine minutes, ending on the effortless noisey art-rock the band are best known for. And I suppose that's what makes OOIOO so successful, they're never happy to stay in one place too long, they seem to be perfectly at home performing three or four songs concurrently - 'GRS' is one part Steve Reich, one part Jamaican steel-drum band, one part girl vocal harmony pop and one part jazz... it works, but only just. When the album finally comes to a close you feel like you've been dragged through a musical hedge backwards, like listening to John Peel's ipod on shuffle - it's diverse but strangely appealing, and just that little bit wrong.
'Taiga' is the latest disc from Boredoms related all-girl Japanese avant-rock terrorists OOIOO and is unsurprisingly an odd one. Packaged in a sparkly sleeve that made us all go 'ooooh' (or ooioo?) when it arrived, this is probably the strangest OOIOO album yet, throwing away the poppish structures that made 'Green and Gold' so damn attractive to us in favour of looping tribal rhythms and occasional explorations into mystical prog-psych-folk. Opening with 'Uma' we are treated to three and a half minutes of devastating drumming, Japanese screetching and the occasional synth bleep. There's no need for melody here, the ladies are heading straight for the jugular and intend to cause maximum damage. Then we're straight into 'KMS' some kind of avant-rock take on a cop-show theme possibly, which rises and falls through various incarnations for nine minutes, ending on the effortless noisey art-rock the band are best known for. And I suppose that's what makes OOIOO so successful, they're never happy to stay in one place too long, they seem to be perfectly at home performing three or four songs concurrently - 'GRS' is one part Steve Reich, one part Jamaican steel-drum band, one part girl vocal harmony pop and one part jazz... it works, but only just. When the album finally comes to a close you feel like you've been dragged through a musical hedge backwards, like listening to John Peel's ipod on shuffle - it's diverse but strangely appealing, and just that little bit wrong.
'Taiga' is the latest disc from Boredoms related all-girl Japanese avant-rock terrorists OOIOO and is unsurprisingly an odd one. Packaged in a sparkly sleeve that made us all go 'ooooh' (or ooioo?) when it arrived, this is probably the strangest OOIOO album yet, throwing away the poppish structures that made 'Green and Gold' so damn attractive to us in favour of looping tribal rhythms and occasional explorations into mystical prog-psych-folk. Opening with 'Uma' we are treated to three and a half minutes of devastating drumming, Japanese screetching and the occasional synth bleep. There's no need for melody here, the ladies are heading straight for the jugular and intend to cause maximum damage. Then we're straight into 'KMS' some kind of avant-rock take on a cop-show theme possibly, which rises and falls through various incarnations for nine minutes, ending on the effortless noisey art-rock the band are best known for. And I suppose that's what makes OOIOO so successful, they're never happy to stay in one place too long, they seem to be perfectly at home performing three or four songs concurrently - 'GRS' is one part Steve Reich, one part Jamaican steel-drum band, one part girl vocal harmony pop and one part jazz... it works, but only just. When the album finally comes to a close you feel like you've been dragged through a musical hedge backwards, like listening to John Peel's ipod on shuffle - it's diverse but strangely appealing, and just that little bit wrong.