Oh Astro – Champions Of Wonder

Right, now im creeped out. Oh Astro have actually crossed the threshold from experimental to disturbing with their track 'Lucy And The Moon'. It's basically one vocal line that would sound very traditional, if it hadn't been raped with ring modulators, gonkulators and other obscure music geek weaponry. 'Lucy And The Moon' is one part psychotic robot huddled in a corner of a padded cell, one part Limp Bizkit album intro rip-off and about thirty parts crazy. Which isn't to say that the rest of Oh Astro's album, 'Champions Of Wonder' isn't quirky and strange, far from it. That was just really really weird alright?

Shit, is that a Pet Shop Boys sample? I rush to Google to find out. Turns out the vocal cut-ups on 'Candy Sun Smiles' were from a song called 'Getting Away With It' by an 80's band called Electronic. Close, but no cigar. I found that tidbit of information from Oh Astro's myspace, which goes to the trouble of detailing what samples were used where. And boy, are there a lot of them. I'm surprised they haven't been dragged into court yet by some vulture bastard major label music lawyer. We should all be thankful of that fact though, because Oh Astro use samples better than the majority of the artists out there, taking normality and turning it into something new and beautiful (try and look for any trace of Lionel Ritchie in 'Hello Fuji Boy', and by doing that you'll miss the sweet Hot Chip rip). Musical botching and aural horticulture is resplendent on 'Champions Of Wonder'.

The stark minimalism of 'Empty Air' really breaks the album up, sounding like something that would have sprung from an obscure electronica label like Audiobulb. 'Itch Box' is probably a good representation of wandering through a playground whilst on ketamin and acid simultaneously. Vocal samples rock back and forth with a persistent bass kick slowly boring its way through your grey matter. It's demanding, but not unwelcome to listen to.

However, this album does have many, many weak songs. Oh Astro's most sample heavy track, 'Xanadu' sadly flies way off the mark, being probably the weakest on the album, with a grating vocal sample lying lazily over the rest of the track. And he final three tracks are a bit of a write off. By now the modulations and gonkulations previously mentioned have become quite irritating, and one has the strong desire to skip back to 'Snow Queen', which to Oh Astro's credit, is a bit of a banger. Sounding like something from the Glitch Mob had they spent the day in Balamory, it's a joyful slice of I.D.M. that brightens up even the darkest of days.

Oh Astro started out sounding like mashups for the intelligent raver, but through the course of the album turns progressively more into 2 people (and one part timer) who have just downloaded a load of Pro Tools plugins and used that as a basis for an album. Its a brave, but severely flawed collection of songs. Infact, if Oh Astro had taken the first 5 tracks of 'Champions Of Wonder' and chucked the rest away, they would have a solid E.P. which showcases their sampling and audio manipulation skills, without becoming tiresome in the process. But as it stands, 'Champions Of Wonder ' is no masterpiece, and no matter how many glitches and splices Oh Astro throw at us to try to prove otherwise, they're definitely not getting away with it.