When was the last time you heard an interesting band come out of Missouri? There ain't none. Except for Okkoto.
These fellas hail from Aurora, Missouri (or according to their Facebook info, Jumanji.) They call themselves "schizophrenic hardcore," which is a surprisingly accurate nutshell description. It seems like they took little bits of a gazillion genres and threw them in a pot. A nice handful of hardcore here. A good amount of spaz here. A sprinkling of screamo and a dash of grind...
Their sound ends up being a unique mishmash of quality music. This January, they put out their first full length entitled "Childhood/Brotherhood" - after 5 years of being an active band. It's about time I say! The guys recorded the album themselves, and it took them most of 2010. For such slow going, the product better be damned good. Thankfully they do not disappoint.
The album starts of with three minutes of slow instrumentals during "Childhood," leading up to a minute of spoken word/slam poetry in the fashion of Levi the Poet or Listener or Aaron Weiss (mewithoutYou.) A little darker those perhaps. After that we jump into the heavy/spazy/grindy ballad, "Mathlete." This song sets the pace for the rest of the album, both sound-wise, and length-wise. Most of their songs are over 5 minutes long, giving relief from the trend of super-short hardcore songs.
At the halfway point of the album we are met with another spoken word track, titled "Brotherhood" (makes sense, yeah?), and they begin wrapping up the album. "Ken Griffey Jr.," in contrast to the rest of the album, is a straight-forward, 1:04 long hardcore ditty. I dig it.
The last two songs on the album I'm honestly a little bit bummed about. "What Thousand Words Does This Picture Paint?" had potential to be a great track, but someone tried to do some smooth vocals in there. Now, I like smoothies in their place, but I like them on key. To be honest, I'm not sure this dude hit any correct notes. No worries though, after about 4:00 he stops singing and the rest of the track is quite good.
And the last song, the one with the pointless title, also had the potential to be very good, and I actually enjoy most of it. My only issue is that it had gratuitous amounts of breakdowns in it, which up until that point they had managed to keep under control. Again, breakdowns are fine, but on the third breakdown section I was getting a little bored. The parts in between the breakdowns are definitely worth listening to, however.
OK, enough of my complaining. Overall, this album is one of my favorite recent albums from an unsigned band. Definitely going on my iPod. Now go, download and taste some of your own Missouri lovin'!
Okkoto on Facebook
Okkoto on Bandcamp
Download Childhood/Brotherhood
They've even got a Tumblr!
Love,
The Patron
I can honestly say, that in all the criticism of the album, this is one of the hardest-put, and most constructive. I agree that my singing on Thousand Words is immensely off-key, but it gives a rawness and a DIY-type feel that no other band dares try to maintain. I know it was off, and I like it that way, despite weeks of fretting over it (haha). The last song is actually, in the bands personal quarters referred to as, "Breakdown Song." It's an oldie, but overall, a goodie. Thank you for enjoying our music, and thank you for letting others know about it. It means more than you will ever know to us.
ReplyDelete-Hue (from Okkoto, if you hadn't already assumed as much.)
P.S.- You are a great writer. Keep it up.
Wow, thanks. haha
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that my opinion is relevant, and even more glad that you appreciate it. One of my fears is that a band is going to get wind of something i wrote and be super displeased, but my fears are assuaged a little today haha.
I appreciate you compliments and your music. Keep it up!
-The Patron