Ooioo

Led by percussionist/guitarist/vocalist YoshimiO -- also a founding member of Japanese experimental greats Boredoms -- OOIOO's music is united by the enthusiasm powering their wide-ranging explorations. They borrow from and reimagine fusion, kosmische, prog rock, and sounds from around the globe in ever-changing ways that are all the more exciting for their unpredictability. While 1997's OOIOO grew from the same noisy, psychedelic roots as Boredoms' music from that time, the band soon took that album's call-and-response vocals, rangy song structures, and transcendent rhythms in very different directions. On 1999's Feather Float, OOIOO found bliss in motorik repetition; on the following year's Gold and Green, they immersed themselves in elongated, pastoral excursions. Later, they dug into African inspirations on 2006's Taiga and Javanese gamelan music on 2014's Gamel, then stripped their instrumentation down to guitar, bass, and drums for 2020's Nijimusi. Despite, or perhaps because of, their constant state of flux, OOIOO burst forth with excitement and vivacity in a way few other groups do. OOIOO began in 1995, when YoshimiO assembled a fake band for a magazine photo shoot. However, the group -- which also included guitarist/vocalist Kyoko, bassist/vocalist Maki, and drummer/vocalist Yoshiko -- soon began playing together for real. In 1997, they opened for Sonic Youth on that band's tour of Japan and released their self-titled debut album. Featuring cameos by Pussy Galore's Julia Cafritz, Cornelius' Keigo Oyamada, and Boredoms' Yamantaka Eye, OOIOO bore a resemblance to the music YoshimiO's other group was making at the time, but balanced their forays into noise with equally prominent melodies. Kill Rock Stars released the album in the U.S. in 1998, and the band followed it with the more streamlined yet dynamic Feather Float a year later. The group's music continued to evolve quickly with 2000's Gold and Green, a more delicate, reflective set that introduced longtime guitarist Kayan and featured contributions by Sean Lennon and Yuka Honda. The following year, the remix collection Shock City Shockers 2 included a cover of Flora Purim's "Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly." Another veteran member of the band, bassist Aya, debuted on 2003's Kila Kila Kila, an album whose sparse yet expansive tracks included drummer Yuka Yoshimura, also of DMBQ and Metalchicks. Both Feather Float and Kila Kila Kila were issued in the States by Birdman Records; Gold and Green was released in the U.S. by Thrill Jockey in 2005. Thrill Jockey also issued 2006's sprawling, nature-inspired Taiga, which marked the debut of drummer Ai. OOEYEOO, an album of remixes by Eye, arrived in early 2007. OOIOO returned with 2009's Armonico Hewa, a slightly heavier album whose title was a mix of Spanish and Swahili words meaning "air in a harmonious state." Their next studio outing was 2014's Gamel, an album loosely inspired by Javanese gamelan music. The following year, founding member Kyoko died. In 2016, the band introduced drummer Mishina to the fold. Her first album with OOIOO was 2020's Nijimusi, the group's first set of songs to focus on standard rock instrumentation in some time.
© Heather Phares & Kieran McCarthy /TiVo