Oh, Yoko
I Love You
Normal Cookie
This intriguing electro-pop album seems to float above my player, a gentle female voice singing something beautiful in Japanese with an 8-bit keyboard adding a slow rhythm over a synthesized underlayer of ambient music.
That’s “Tourmi,” perhaps my favorite cut on this dreamy collection. “Grand Prix” is more rhythm heavy, but still floating in the same time field of unobtrusive pop soundlings. Low-res audio infuses this tea ceremony; it’s as if all the Casio keyboards of your youth got together and went to Julliard. Another noteworthy track is “Song with Coyotes.” Raindrops fall off the digital leaves of a tropical forest as a harmonica tunes up. The band searches for a sound that they can’t quite hit, and exotic birds cry out in the background “Arrrrrthuuur LYYYman! Arrrrrthuuur LYYYman!” These must be Hawaiian coyotes.
Oh, Yoko mixes low tech sounds, complex overlays, pop culture samples, and breathy intimate vocals to create a special place of calm and reasonableness and a place of childlike play and inquiry. How can you not relax? Even the coyotes are relaxed.
