Washed in electronica and ambient dub OKO take chances you wish everyone would in a jazz scene whose head has been frequently turned by virulent Golden Ageism. The Irish band, part of the Match & Fuse family (although it’s not really a prog-jazz outfit), recorded I Love You Computer Mountain in Dublin in 2012. This four-piece (Shane Latimer eight-string guitar/electronics; Darragh O’Kelly, keys, synths; Shane O’Donovan, drums/percussion/sampler; and DJackulate turntables/kaval/sampler/sax) open with ‘Shoehorns & Axelgrease’ sounding like a dubbed-up Floratone for a minute while ‘Totes Awky Momo’ moves the goalposts into more of an ambient space. ‘Under Over’ is more about the beat O’Kelly’s chord changes eventually opening up the tech-laden jam after an initial Indo-fusion and early Return to Forever-like foray.
Out and out improvising in a blowing session style is not what OKO are about at all although the music has an open experimental feel to it where improvising progression is vital, the samplers and sheen of tech maybe blunting the message a little although it’s not aimed at the idea of people dancing around laptops, which would have been fatal.
‘Cell Cell Cell’ has more of an industrial feel at the beginning mutating into dubstep while ‘Axelgrease’ following lobs in overt dubby-bass and patches in a Steel Pulse-like reggae feel that then develops. Expansive Lonnie Liston Smith-like keyboards change the mood at the beginning of ‘What’s The Concept?’ an unfortunate bit of titling there although the mood shift is effective. ‘Oblong’ hovers a little on the edges of a trancey worldbeat sound while ‘Magnet Paste’ has a subdued drum ’n’ bass-like opening.
‘Unbelievable Sushi’ at the end moves more into abstract electronica, so, as you can tell from this and the above, there’s a lot packed in here stylistically. Not everything works but the band have ideas to burn and it will be interesting to chart their development especially as the sound coalesces into something more quantifiable. The spark is there. SG