Skip to content
Premieres

OOIOO Bang a Gong for July Album ‘Gamel’ With Entrancing ‘Atawata’

OOIOO, Yoshimi P-we, 'Gamel,' "Atawata," stream, Boredoms, gamelan, Javanese

Yoshimi P-we may have “a black belt in karate,” at least as famously described by the Flaming Lips on their album named in the longtime Boredroms drummer’s honor, 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. But the ancient art she has been studying the past several years with her group OOIOO is the Javanese musical style of gamelan. On July 1, OOIOO will release new album Gamel via Thrill Jockey (pre-order it here).

The follow-up to such releases as 2009’s Armonico Hewa and 2006’s Taiga is a free-flowing update on the bell- and gong-based form has that influenced modern music from Claude Debussy to Sun City Girls. The first track streaming from the percussion-heavy album is “Atawata,” which features gamelan musicians Tomoyuki Hamamoto and Koheysai Kawamura. Layering jagged guitars and vibrant vocals atop skittering rhythms and breathy shouts, it’s a shape-shifting and hypnotic work that ultimately delivers a sense of beatific joy.

Listen below, and scroll down for the track list.

Gamel track list:

1. “Don Ah”
2. “Shizuku Gunung Agung”
3. “Pebarongan”
4. “Gamel Ninna Yama”
5. “Gamel Uma Umo”
6. “Gamel Kamasu”
7. “Atatawa”
8. “Jesse Testa”
9. “Gamel Udahah”
10. “Kecupat Aneh”
11. “Gamel Ulda”