Well, DUH, this came out of Chicago. Or at least via Chicago, because OKTAF O is from Indonesia (if the Indonesian
titles didn’t give it away). But to be surprised that Chicago has anything to
do with this is to understand your limitations as a music listener. You can
either educate yourself on the rich, deep history of Chicago math rock, or you
can go throw your brain in a Great Lake for all the good it’s doing you. I
wonder if it will float, and if so, how long do you think it’ll take before it
gets waterlogged? My money’s on immediate sinkage – if you tie rock to it.
All this brain-sinking talk is sidetracking us from the main issue, and
that’s somebody over ol’ Indonesia way has got their hands on some pretty good
experimental records, mainly from the Thrill Jockey back catalog. And that’s
really, really great news, because nobody – nobody
– does anything quite like Thrill Jockey, and if you mention them in a
sentence (or a review), you pretty much can’t be screwing around. I’m not
screwing around. I absolutely think that OKTAF O digs themselves some of that
Thrill Jockey music. But they aren’t content to wallow in a stylistic slough –
if they’ve learned anything from the Chicago label it’s that you’ve got to
branch out and do your own thing, blaze your own path, carve your own niche,
etc., and on into other clichés. I honestly don’t have the first clue what the
cutting edge of experimental music coming out of Indonesia sounds like, but I’d
like to venture a guess that it sounds a lot like OKTAF O and that OKTAF O is
wickedly popular throughout the archipelago.
And OKTAF O gets butts wigglin’, that’s for sure. Selamat… is a full-on rhythmic onslaught, with bass and drums
parrying the tracks back and forth at each other like Rod Laver or Boris Becker
or Pete Sampras, no one losing control or failing to expertly place a single
note or beat. Synthesizers melt down upon themselves above this fray, adding
texture and sometimes melody, the icing on the math rock brain-lake tennis cake
from Indonesia for which I can’t help but mix metaphors incessantly, mainly
because the tape is all over the place in the best possible way. Want me to get
real with you? OK. Imagine I Am Spoonbender and Tortoise forming a supergroup.
There, I said it. “Tortoise” and “supergroup” in the same review. I hope you’re
happy. (I’m not sure how many of you are actually going to get the I Am
Spoonbender reference, though.)
Seriously though, edition of 40. That’s not a lot, and until someone
picks this up for wider distribution (ahem, Thrill Jockey, ahem), you’re going
to have to fight over the scraps of whatever number of cassettes are left.
Don’t worry, I have one. But it’s not for sale.
--Ryan Masteller
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