Since the end of the eighties, Yoshimi P-We has been the drummer of the band Boredoms. However, those who would expect a similar kind of noise-explosion from OOIOO as from the Japanese noise-rockers couldn’t be more wrong. OOIOO is a group of six Japanese musicians, four women and two men. Since 1997, the band has released six records, which are hard to pigeonhole when it comes to their music and their style. Their output can be ranged somewhere between experiment, contemporary music and pop – it took them five years to create their latest record »Gamel«, which extensively deals with Javanese gamelan-music. Gamelan is the name for both the traditional music as well the respective instruments, like metallophones, gongs and drums. OOIOO doesn’t just copy the historic music on »Gamel« but rather uses it as a source of inspiration, using the original instruments but combining them with polyrhythmic percussions, distorted wah-wah-rock-guitars, exalted lyrics (solo as well as choir-singings in ritual-like unison), funk-bass, Zappaesque arrangements, Nigerian high-life-elements, nervous jazz, no wave, improvisations of repetitive kraut and electronic sound-experiments so that it all merges into a unique hearing experience. It’s music that’s impressively hypnotic.
Gamel
