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OOIOO, "Kila Kila Kila"
Ape Sounds
If records are fetish objects in the same sense that pornography is,then people who scour the globe for every last shred of vinyl relatedto spastic Japanese bands have got to be emotionally retarded in thesame way that fanciers of tentacle-rape animeare, right? Thankfully, the gang of musicians represented on the latestOOIOO record have reached a bit further back into their lives than thepoint at which giant-robot cartoons were the height of cool, and havebrought forward a kid's enthusiasm for tuneless xylophone banging andnonsensical whispering. This sits alongside repetitive ritualpercussion, noodly organ lines and increasingly complex harmoniesshared by a fairly wide assortment of instruments in a way thatoccasionally makes a lot of sense. I won't pretend to understand whatmakes some of these tunes worth exploring for fifteen minutes whileothers are abandoned after two or less, and I can't help but bedisappointed that the rousing trumpet-and-bass trance hoedown of "onmani," which brought a recent OOIOO concert to an absolutely crazedend, just sort of unfolds logically and goes away halfway through thealbum here. At least they don't rely on three-second-long yelpingtracks or bullshit mysticism for effect, and sometimes the combinationsthat they come up with are so good that I just don't want them to end.OOIOO shows are far more recommendable to catch as the energy capturedin the studio on this disc is nowhere near the heights that the band iscapable of reaching on stage. Thankfully Kila Kila Kila doesn't come close to being as sunny-new-age-schlocky as some of the material on Shock City Shockers 2.
If records are fetish objects in the same sense that pornography is,then people who scour the globe for every last shred of vinyl relatedto spastic Japanese bands have got to be emotionally retarded in thesame way that fanciers of tentacle-rape animeare, right? Thankfully, the gang of musicians represented on the latestOOIOO record have reached a bit further back into their lives than thepoint at which giant-robot cartoons were the height of cool, and havebrought forward a kid's enthusiasm for tuneless xylophone banging andnonsensical whispering. This sits alongside repetitive ritualpercussion, noodly organ lines and increasingly complex harmoniesshared by a fairly wide assortment of instruments in a way thatoccasionally makes a lot of sense. I won't pretend to understand whatmakes some of these tunes worth exploring for fifteen minutes whileothers are abandoned after two or less, and I can't help but bedisappointed that the rousing trumpet-and-bass trance hoedown of "onmani," which brought a recent OOIOO concert to an absolutely crazedend, just sort of unfolds logically and goes away halfway through thealbum here. At least they don't rely on three-second-long yelpingtracks or bullshit mysticism for effect, and sometimes the combinationsthat they come up with are so good that I just don't want them to end.OOIOO shows are far more recommendable to catch as the energy capturedin the studio on this disc is nowhere near the heights that the band iscapable of reaching on stage. Thankfully Kila Kila Kila doesn't come close to being as sunny-new-age-schlocky as some of the material on Shock City Shockers 2.
