- Audio CD (9 Nov 2009)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Thrill Jockey
- ASIN: B002N1AE8M
- Other Editions: Vinyl
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 209,042 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Review
Although OOIOO (pronounced oh-oh-eye-oh-oh) provides the tallest platform for the towering visions of Yoshimi P-We, her role in the all-woman quartet is only her third most recognisable status. She’s better known for being the drummer in Japanese experimental icons the Boredoms, and in a more tenuous but wider-ranging way for being honoured in the title of the Flaming Lips album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. On the strength of Armonico Hewa, the sixth OOIOO album, the Lips could benefit from an injection of this kind of bubbling energy and gleeful surrealism.
The title of this album is a mixture of Spanish and Swahili, and its musical contents are about as culturally disparate. Take Polacca, a track centred around drums, vocal chants and zippy, high-pitched guitar and keys which sounds like an experimentalist’s reimagining of various African genres – highlife or soukous, perhaps. It never feels like OOIOO are mere magpies here, though – as with the Boredoms, the members not only use these inspirations as a springboard for their own driven wig-outs, but eventually absorb them into a world with no First or Third, East or West.
While there are long instrumental passages over these 50 minutes, Yoshimi’s voice comes to the fore on Ulda, rising like a sun over the pastel blocks of pure electric drone. Irorun bursts with youthful energy and the pitched-up, percussively-charged zeal of Battles’ 2007 breakout sort-of anthem, Atlas; O O I A H is perhaps Armonico Hewa’s best showcase for their rhythmic elasticity, sounding like early 1980s NYC band Liquid Liquid fast-forwarded a decade into the city’s tribal house scene. The beats are about as important here as with the Boredoms, who infamously arranged an outdoor concert featuring 77 drummers two years ago. Hewa Hewa might be naught but militaristic drums and repeated vocal invocations, but if you try and jog while listening to it you’ll do yourself a hernia.
The occasional feeling that you’re regressing into childhood can get a bit much – glorified playground chant Honki Ponki is as CBBC as its title – but more often, this feels like being kidnapped and dropped in a mystery continent with your memory erased. In a good way, naturally. --Noel Gardner
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1 review
probably the best OOIOO album yet
9 May 2010
Format:Audio CD
Over the years, I have consistently listened to this band's first 3 albums (self titled, Feather Float, Gold and Green) and I fall in love with them each time I hear them. I was slightly disappointed with their next two albums, Kila Kila Kila and Taiga. Not to say they were bad albums, because they were far from that, but I felt like they were missing the element of humor that their earlier albums had. What those two albums did have was plenty of unique and pleasant atmosphere.
Well.. this new album is almost like a marriage of the styles of their earlier albums with the later two albums. The result is just a pleasure to listen to. Instead of gushing about it, I'll just list a few adjectives that spring to mind... delightful, hilarious, funky, whimsical, challenging, compelling, addictive..
If you are even a slight fan of anything this band has done in the past, this album is essential. If you happened upon this product by chance, then this is your lucky day.
It's impossible to listen to this without smiling. Possibly a contender for one of my favorite albums of all time.
Well.. this new album is almost like a marriage of the styles of their earlier albums with the later two albums. The result is just a pleasure to listen to. Instead of gushing about it, I'll just list a few adjectives that spring to mind... delightful, hilarious, funky, whimsical, challenging, compelling, addictive..
If you are even a slight fan of anything this band has done in the past, this album is essential. If you happened upon this product by chance, then this is your lucky day.
It's impossible to listen to this without smiling. Possibly a contender for one of my favorite albums of all time.
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