“Ringing in our Wrists” out on March 19th
You may not know Yoshiko Ohara’s name, but you probably – if you’re a fan of the more experimental end of heavy music – know her unique, haunted voice from her work within the confines of New York’s experimental doom merchants Bloody Panda. Having voiced some of the eeriest metal music to come out of the Americas in recent times, her haunted vocals have often emphasised and amplified the unsettling, tenebrous elements in their music to an intense degree.
Yoshiko also works as a visual artist, and has some for quite some time. Now, I’m no art critic and I won’t pretend otherwise, but even to my untrained eyes there’s a same slightly nightmarish quality in some of her visual art. Stark and enigmatic at some times, playful and surreal in others, she expresses a spectral quality in her work both in a band environment and on canvas : she projects a darkness, but more the serene elements that lie within the shadow side of the subconcious rather than any notion of “evil” or anything sinister. She works in different shades of bleakness rather than just plain old black.
On her imminent debut solo album “Ringing In Our Wrists”, out this month through Toby Driver of Kayo Dot’s newly founded Ice Level label she may have found the most potent forum of expression for her natural gift for articulating the arcane yet, shifting into a more focused and no less disturbing gear. Removed from the guitar/bass/keys/drums traditional rock setting of Bloody Panda, the album contains a selection of pieces that explore further both the ominous and the unsettled. It’s a spellbinding listen – based around layered voices, treated and either buried under or backed by waves of fractured electronics, synthesizers and strings. This new work is by far the darkest thing she has done in any medium, and a contender for most genuinely unnerving record you’ll hear this year. The veil is lifted and the stillness at the core of her previous work is gone for the most part, as she plunges head first into a frightening world of sound.
“Symmetrical Lanterns”, which we present here for those of you in the Cvltnation readership who like to be challenged, sums up perfectly the two extremes of the album. beginning with a relatively restrained set of warm synths with our hostess’ keening voice distant in the back ground, it gradually descends into madness, as chattering electronic sounds and layers of Ohara’s vocals build into a wave of madness. But then, the calm is restored for the closing section, as melancholic keys and her voice lull us out of the storm into…well..you’ll have to hear the entire album to see what happens next.
Ohara has created a musical phantasmagoria here where even the closest comparisons that come to mind – Diamanda Galas, Aghast, or at a stretch parts of the work of both Moevot or Vvltvre – can’t fully prepare you for it. Tense throughout,”Ringing In Our Wrists” is an evocative collection of sonic vignettes that evoke a shadowy set of aural spirits that will haunt you repeatedly. A compelling listen to say the least.
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