An Organ Thing of the Day for today? Well there is new Lightning Bolt, surely that should more than do for a cold wet dull Sunday in January? Here it is, it is very very Lightning Boltish, the first track from a split release that also features music from OOIOO. Nothing to hear from OOIOO yet, but then the release date isn’t until late April…
“OOIOO and Lightning Bolt are both bands whose music is wholly unique and whose creators’ influence would be impossible to overstate. YoshimiO, OOIOO’s founder and bandleader, has been a guiding force in uncompromising art across the continuum of rock and improvised music for four decades, from her work in UFO or Die to BOREDOMS to SAICOBAB and beyond. OOIOO serves as a core outlet for melding freeform experimentalism with hypnotic rock pulses, defying boundaries with her acrobatic voice, electronics, trumpet and gamelan. Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson have remained unparalleled in their ability to transmute frenetic whirls of percussion, gargantuan fuzz and dizzying melody into monolithic vistas. THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL is a split that captures the parallels in ethos between these two ensembles, their sense of gleeful abandon and freight train momentum, in inspiring detail.
THE HORIZON SPIRALS, composed of OOIOO’s gamelan-infused sagas “THE HORIZON” and “Gamel BE SURE TO SPIRAL” demonstrates the boundless scope of OOIOO’s music. YoshimiO explains a core contrast between these pieces and 2014’s Gamel lays in the physical materials used: “Back then in Bali, bronze-keyed gamelan were mainstream, and GAMEL uses bronze. THE HORIZON SPIRALS’ gamelan is iron. Black-painted iron. This time, incorporating Koheysai’s iron sound (iron gamelan) allowed us to see OOIOO’s songs spiraling upward with greater lightness. The iron gamelan infiltrated OOIOO’s sparkling elements, grounding that sound within the audible range as a new wave sound. It also blends exceptionally well with Mishina’s cymbals.” Opener “THE HORIZON” draws inspiration from Sun Ra Arkestra’s Horizon, bursting from oscillations into a syncopated groove before stretching out into uptempo hypnoticism lead by YoshimiO’s trumpet. “Gamel BE SURE TO SPIRAL” warps the OOIOO classic “Be Sure To Loop” through the lens of gamelan, emphasizing the power of repetition and incremental change. “We humans each possess a nature to repeat, yet with each repetition we grow more attuned,” says YoshimiO. “We don’t repeat in the same place; that repetition spirals upward, never landing in the same spot twice. We realize there is no stagnation on that path.”
Lightning Bolt’s THE HORIZON VIRAL evokes the limitlessness of their improvisations and distills through more sophisticated home recording techniques. While their recent efforts have been captured in the studio with Seth Manchester (whose imprint remains on the split’s mastering), THE HORIZON VIRAL reignites the flame of their storied home recordings, capturing the duo unfiltered and on their home turf and bolstered from bassist Brian Gibson’s experiences composing and recording for his acclaimed games Thrasher and Thumper. The five pieces that make up their side were arranged as a single suite, meant to be played all together, with movements like “WAVERS” and “CLOUD CORE” showcasing how relentless the duo’s energy remains. Throughout, Gibson’s ability to conjure riffs that feel timeless is as potent as drummer Brian Chippendale’s ability to propel them until their instruments become inextricably enmeshed. Chippendale explains their approach to their side: “OOIOO set the tone with THE HORIZON SPIRAL but we didn’t really roll with the spiral theme. We’re more Viral than Spiral though they both can dump you in a rabbit hole and we definitely like rabbit holes. The songs get to build a bit of conceptual depth through their titles, most of which are references to the work of others we know or admire, like Clown Core, YoshimiO’s band BOREDOMS, or Deerhoof, who have always been a friend-band to us.”
The pairing of OOIOO and Lightning Bolt is a natural extension of their decades-long bond. Following a lifetime of being inspired by and supporting one another, brought together by the overlaps in their singular visions, THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL is a celebration of indomitable creativity. In their endless pursuit of crafting pure, uninhibited, enchanting art, OOIOO and Lightning Bolt continue to make astonishingly powerful, invigorating music”.
THE ORGAN 