Boredoms drummer and Flaming Lips album-title inspiration YoshimiO started the experimental side project OOIOO in 1996, and they've traveled down lots of pathways in the 30 years since then. OOIOO haven't released anything since their 2019 album Nijimusi, but they're about to return in a very cool way. They've teamed up with Providence noise-rock greats and longtime Boredoms buddies Lightning Bolt for THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL, a split album that's coming out this spring. We've already heard the Lightning Bolt song "CLOUD CORE," and now OOIOO have shared an epic new piece of music.
OOIOO's side of THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL only has two tracks, but those tracks are long. "Gamel BE SURE TO SPIRAL," the new one that they've shared today, is a meditative freakout that lasts for 11 and a half minutes. It's a reinterpretation of "Be Sure To Loop," a song from OOIOO's 1999 album Feather Float, done through the lens of gamelan, the genre that the band explored in their 2014 LP GAMEL, and it's a wild ride.
In a press release, YoshimiO says, "We humans each possess a nature to repeat, yet with each repetition we grow more attuned. 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." I know that's right. Get lost in "Gamel BE SURE TO SPIRAL" below.
THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL is out 4/24 on Thrill Jockey. OOIOO will play a rare live show 4/4 at Open Melody Festival in Los Angeles, with more dates on the way.
