Track Listing

1. Moss Trumpeter
2. Te Ku Te Ku Tune
3. Grow Sound Tree
4. Mountain Book
5. I'm A Song
6. Fossil
7. Ina#,O
8. Unu
9. Idbi
10. X6##
11. Emeraldragonfly
12. Return to NOW

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66619 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-19
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Return to NOW
What a fantastic discovery. It is easy to see why the Flaming Lips should dedicate a whole album to Yoshimi P-We, one half of Japanese space rockers The Boredoms and ringleader of OOIOO. What they share with the Lips is a wonderous innocence and awe-struck playfulness, creating experimental music that is neither pretentious or cerebral. Rather, this is a joyous trip that consistently surprises with its seemingly effortless innovations. Considering that this was originally released in Japan in 2000 - it makes a mockery of what has been made by comparative artists since (from Mogwai to Godspeed to Out Hud). It makes Future Sound of London's Amorphous Androginous seem like a blatant and incompetent rip-off. Imagine Pipers at the Gates of Dawn reimagined by Animal Collective if they comprised Japanese women. Opener 'Moss Trumpet' is something of a false start, a nice ditty comprising some soft, tribal drumming and a relatively mornful trumpet line, while 'Te Ku Te Ku Tune' is similarly low-key in its swirling ambience. Then 'Grow Sound Tree' kicks off: six minutes of mutant space rock with unintelligible vocal manipulations and a propulsive rythmn section. Then the rulebook gets thrown out of the window: 'Mountain Book' swells from deliriously childlike melodies into a highly original psychedelic squall, while 'I'm a Song' is acid funk in the mould of Out Hud but with a purposefulness and vivacity that they sometimes lack. The other major highlight is the singular 'Emeraldragonfly', which adds what sounds like Shirely Basset singing in an empty ballroom over a spacious dubby jam. Although there are some throwaway moments, this comes highly recommended. This is prog rock without the arch, po-faced pretentions, prog rock with funk and jazz undertones and a dazzling pop sensibility. Even, better, there is at least three other OOIOO albums to explore and I haven't even listened to The Boredoms yet.

Bizarre but occasionally brilliant mutant pop from Japan
The side project of Yoshimi P-We, the drummer of Japanese band The Boredoms and muse for The Flaming Lips album “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, Ooioo( It’s pronounced Oh-oh-eye-oh-oh I’m reliably informed) have produced quite possibly the most wildly experimental album released this year. Not that I’m given to listening to wildly experimental music a lot, it’s just that I can’t envisage anything else quite so bonkers being conceived. I’m probably wrong on that score as some pedant will no doubt prove but what did I expect. The Boredoms hardly classify as easy listening and Yoshimi has also worked with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth who also knows how to fracture and coagulate a song or two. I guess experimentation , like yucky burgers at McDonalds and rubbish telly on Channel Four was always going to be on the menu.
Actually in saying it was released this year I told a small untruth as Green and Gold was originally released in 2000 but only in Japan. Now it’s out over here but I’m really not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Or that I should be recommending you buy, or even borrow a copy to listen to it. It’s that sort of album. Some of it is inspired, bits of it infuriating, the odd track just plain good old fashioned rubbish. But more so than most other albums. Does that clear it up? Gold and Green fuses the free form elements of jazz but also the more linear arrangements of dance and ambient to create songs that seem to ramble via Yoshimis yelping high range vocals with rolling rhythmic percussion and expansive instrumentation. Sometimes the songs stick to this formula for the duration like on “Moss Trumpeter”. Sometimes they start out this way then change tack completely like they all got bored and explodes at tangents into bizarre investigational jams like on “Ina”. Sometimes they start out like that and just stay the same like on “Tune” which ,and this may be the point , doesn’t have one. Occasionally something truly fantastic unfurls itself from the mass of seething experimentation such as “Emeraldragonfly “ which is like Can merging with Godspeed You Black Emperor. “Mountain Book” approximates pop music. Although it’s the most avant garde pop you are ever likely to hear (Again I can see pedant fingers poised above keyboards) with its lilting vocal chanting and star spangled texturing. “I’m a Song” is all bubbling arrangements and funky surfaces with a propulsive grace that is quite hypnotic.
This is not an album I’m likely to return to again and again and at least a third of it leaves me colder than an iceberg on the dark side of the moon but it’s to be admired for it’s commitment to a individual aesthetic and those moments of true inspiration and beguiling brilliance. And as a bonus the gatefold sleeve contains some stunning artwork from Yoshimi that like her music in its finest moments is at first glance simplistic but turns out to be quite beautiful in its complexity. I guess I can recommend this album after all.