Source: bison.
O YAMA O – GALO
O Yama O return with their first full length LP since 2018’s self titled debut. Galo finds the duo of sculptor Rie Nakajima and vocalist Keiko Yamamoto firmly enmeshed alongside percussionist Marie Roux and violin player and visual artist Billy Steiger as a band, their project this time a proper four way entanglement – or five when you include the record’s powerhouse producer David Cunningham.
Known perhaps already for their exploration of folkloric Japan and the ‘domestic and democratic quality of everyday life’, part of the magic of O Yama O comes from the conjuring of atmospheres from the smallest of elements. On Galo, Nakajima’s object orchestra is accompanied by bird callers, kalimbas, the koto, a Pierre Berthet ‘sounding hat’, and one of those plastic whirly tubes which produce a surprisingly agreeable warbling, especially in the hands of Roux. Together their sound recalls the far out sonorities of Anton Bruhin’s Vom Goldabfischer, (also a fan of a PVC tube, which he fixed with a reed and called a ch-pon), and maps out a hopeful landscape for genuinely experimental folk music; a slippery exploration of customs, routines, storytelling and disparate influences.
DONNA CANDY – BLOOMING
First LP from Donna Candy, the bass-vocal-drums trio trawled from the sub genres of experimental rock and busy pushing to the front of heavy music. Nu metal bass riffs, switch-pitched fuzz vocals and big, splashy drums layer over unsettling narratives and extreme loops to bring a bit of the pit to the dancefloor.
Begun as an off the cuff party band with the idea of finding a live sound that would fit between 4am trance sets, the trio soon found themselves addicted to the euphoric sludge they created. Swapping their usual guitar for a bass, JS Donny drives Donna Candy with simple riffs, split half clean and half shredded with Boris / Sunn O))) like distortion. Head-banging the whole way, they’ll switch speed or stop suddenly, bending and drawing out notes to ratchet things up for release. Nadja’s vocals tear through the top layer – heavily processed and warped with weird imagery. Together there’s a feeling of what it might be like to see Sightings slowed by codeine but with Elvin Brandi on the mic.
Avant Music News 