PHOTO COURTESY OF THRILL JOCKEY
WORDS Brian Carroll
OOIOO, read like an acronym, is an art-rocking four-piece from Japan that rose to popularity as a fake band in a photo shoot, meaning they had a fan following before all the members could even play instruments. Not at all lost, their most musical member, Yoshimi P-We, is an award-winning drummer for over-the-top Psych band Boredoms and has a flair for leadership, to boot.
Yoshimi P-We, or just Yoshimi, as most Americans know her, is famous for battling robots in a popular Flaming Lips ballad. For this album, her band OOIOO follows a simple rule: Each song must feature the style and instruments of the Javanese Gamelan, a music system comprised of gongs, bells, and metallophones. Judging by the results, the group appears to have found their instruments.
Who doesn't like the idea of a gamelan ensemble? Graceful performers are selected to strike a unique set of diverse melodic percussion with one or two hammers. The main section, the gamelan, is a set of bells made from a type of resonant bronze called kerawang. A scrumptious array of bells are available to the Gamelan percussionist, from elegant bamboo xylophones to hanging tubs of pure iron.
Gamelan percussion is often deployed as background music in movies, and it's often during the spookiest, most surreal scenes of a work, when individuals are held captive or under attack by supernatural forces they can't understand. While the number of moods possible to achieve with slightly-out-of-tune-bell-music seems limited, they are a powerful few. When played slow, a listener can feel as though caught in a fog. When played fast, a gamelan ensemble's gently aggressive spell-binding can leave the listener trapped in a crystallization, caught pondering. It is the music of sleep paralysis, the waking dream, the day-mare. So - and this goes without saying - you should always be on the lookout for roving gamelan ensembles.
These instruments are tuned to feature frequencies, or notes, that are not used in the tonic system Westerners are used to hearing, an idiosyncrasy compounded by the highly rhythmic, code-like manner which they are played. Because of the tuning discrepancies, there is a stuffy gentleman's agreement that Western instruments are not harmonically compatible with the Gamelan, so the fun in this record is listening to someone break that rule.
While listening to Gamel, two odd, marvelous things happened: I wanted to turn off the audacious new record immediately, and when I didn't, was left wondering how to get my thoughts back into my head. It's pretty amazing that Gamel - as a concept - was attempted and even comes close to succeeding, much less blowing your mind. Though a symbolic union between Earth's two hemispheres of musical thought is tried frequently, it can be done well, as this truly insane, high-energy album demonstrates.
Gamel succeeds because what P-We and company have come up with are less like traditional songs and more like elaborate musical handshakes. Early portions of the songs are heavy on costume, pagan fire dances, ghoulish statuary, and improv-heavy freak outs, taking a hard-lined inspiration from traditional Javanese music. By each song's midpoint, however, the band inevitably manages to whip up some warm, funky beat or another and transmutes the Java sound with Western Jazz, Rock, and IDM to truly brilliant climaxes.
The album is all color, elbow grease, and humor. OOIOO may have cut its teeth as a group just messing around, but they're not messing around any more. You'll either hate this one or love it, but there's no in-between. Gamel is frequently badass and avant-garde, and is therefore recommended strictly to the adventurous listener. Improv-friendly fans of Roy Budd, Can, Yoko Ono, Battles, Ui, IQU, The Mars Volta, Juana Molina, Tortoise, Deerhoof, Liars, Frank Zappa, Four Tet, Mike Patton, Swans, Boredoms, Sonic Youth, Animal Collective, Bjork, Peaking Lights, Man Man, and Macha will feel right at home.
It's not the sort of jam you kick in traffic, as it's completely mad, but if you like falling down rabbit holes and exploring ideas, this is your chew toy, your Sudoku book, your Hellraiser puzzle box. At it's worst when it's just Prog Rock, and at its best when it's got your booty shakin', Gamel is the damnedest thing: You'll hate it, endure it, and then an hour will go by, and you'll really, really want to listen to it again. There's lots of love in there, sprinkled all around. Gamelan 4-EVA.
Available on Thrill Jockey.