(((O))) Review: Lightning Bolt / OOIOO – The Horizon Spirals / The Horizon Viral

I read a post recently on social media that said, “the atmosphere in the room sure changes the moment that Brian Chippendale pulls on that mask”. This came from someone who had just been to see Rhode Island noise rockers Lightning Bolt. If you know the band, you’ll understand. Here they are back with a split release THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL, with Japanese act OOIOO, who are a new name to me. I’ll be honest, I’m here for the Bolt, but was willing to listen to some new music that they clearly endorse.

First contribution from OOIOO, ‘The Horizon’, drops from the mothership with some spectacular space ray tones before settling into a sequence of kooky xylophone loops, tappy percussion and a fidgety bass groove. Like 6 songs all playing at once. I struggle with this kind of music to be honest, but I get that it will appeal to others. Take the current fascination with Canadian duo Angine de Poitrine for example. Some enthuse wildly about their music but it jams my head. Only around the halfway mark when the drums go full bang does this track make me think “hmmm….”. YoshimiO’s shrieks aren’t exactly endearing to me either. Nice trumpets though as the song winds to its merry end.

Second track ‘Gamel BE SURE TO SPIRAL’ is more like it with some manic Lightning Bolt style drumming to grip on to. Still faced with a plethora of clinks and clonks and outer space noises it’s no less appeasing to my little brain. There’s a LOT going on! When the main groove eventually locks in the repeated mantra of “He’s buying love” urges the listener to submit or leave the room. I’ll give credit here for sheer invention and sonic architecture, it’s pretty amazing that so much SOUND can be crammed into such a timeframe.

I’m absolutely relieved when the familiar tones of Brian Gibson’s mesmerising bass hurtle out of the traps alongside Brian Chippendale’s hyper speed drumming. The usual fucked up sonic attack of Lightning Bolt sounds weirdly NORMAL compared to what OOIOO presented. When ‘WAVERS’ gets stuck into the full-on groove it’s bloody fantastic and drives a firm metallic wedge right into your cranium. Chippendale still garbles unintelligible spook, but his drumming is just lethal, like Olympic levels of greatness.

The belly ache rumble of ‘CLOUD CORE’ is an incredible obliteration of sound. Gibson’s guitar bounces off the walls as Chippendale beats the living shit out of his kit. Magnificent. His voice gets mangled through effects to such an extent it becomes a blur at one point. I question how I can get this music but didn’t really appreciate OOIOO. Guess I’m just seasoned to the extremes of Lightning Bolt. After what sounds like a didgeridoo throbs, it really does sound like Chippendale has busted his snare. What a glorious ending.

The big throbby thing stays for the opening of ‘THE RUNNERS 2”. When it drops off Gibson slams back in with a BIG riff encouraging Chippendale to go absolutely boogaloo with his sticks. Chippendale asks his cohort “You working on the riff?” to which Gibson replies “the what?” before unleashing an absolute MONSTER of a riff. Chippendale cooks up a seismic slammer of a beat to match. Glorious. I once created my own version of bass n’ drums noise under the moniker Team Horse, so I’m obviously excited at the track entitled ‘HEADLESS HORSEFOLK’. It’s one of those queasy sick inducing barrages of hell though that’s waaaay too loose to have any recall moments. Like a drunk staggering through a scrap yard, it is just total chaos.

Literally a game of two halves, this release. OOIOO are a new act to me and to be brutally honest I’m not going to be looking up other material, nor will I return to this. But here, once upon a time I was introduced to a little band called The Jesus Lizard from a split record with Nirvana. That one worked out just fine. There’s always the chance someone might discover a new favourite band from this split release. For the Lightning Bolt half, it’s another blast of sublime aural extreme greatness.