I wanted to cover this one briefly because it triggered some tantalizing nostalgic vibes for me. A little back story on me, I came up during the era of Myspace when social networking and music discovery were literally one and the same activity. During that period, there were a lot of raw genre experiments that would be distributed exclusively through the platform, and it felt like I would stump across a new one of these just about every day. A goth-industrial circus-themed punk band? Sure. A deathcore band with rap parts, or rappers who would drop verses exclusively before live metal bands. Check and check. Grindcore bands with emo vocals. Absolutely. Techno-infused pop-punk bands. Of course! Where do you think Good Charlotte got the idea for Good Morning Revival? The possibilities felt essentially endless. What was even more fascinating about all of these weird experiments is that they would usually get some traction and people would take them fairly seriously. I honestly miss those days more and more as the functional equivalent to what Myspace offered in today's terms is Bandcamp, and Bandcamp's social functions are very endemic, as well as it has an increasingly intense curatorial edge to its navigation that favors more established genres and "respectable" art. I'm not a fan of this frankly and really miss the days when you could log on to a music platform, hang out with your friends and find the craziest sounding thing you never knew existed. There were haters back in the day, of course. But haters, then, as now, are not worth our time. We're here to talk about exciting new music that unapologetically crosses the arbitrary boundaries of genre, which is a perfect segue into a discussion of Negative Øhio.
Negative Øhio is a forward-looking collab between an American and self-described Nintendocore musician Gigakoops and a Norwegian metal producer named Nightmare Lyre. They're both trans women and present themselves in full fursona, which I can't help but find endearing. Their second LP Never Mind The Gap is a message album of sorts that expresses discontentment with the increasingly conservative government of the UK as well as solidarity with gender-nonconforming and neuro-divergent individuals in their struggles for survival and recognition of their humanity around the world. Great messages, right? I fully endorse both. As for their music, I like it. I wouldn't be writing about it if I didn't. It's essentially a rough blending of hardcore techno and gabber beats with grindcore blasts, layered with slam parts, death metal grooves, and other strange sonic ephemera. There are some segments where they slip into drowsy R'nB melodies ("I Must Count My Blessings (Because I Feel There’s Been a Miscalculation)") as well as highly theatrical moments where it sounds like I'm listening to an original musical score being rehearsed entirely by monsters ("Transgender Lucifer"). Eight-bit soundcard sounds are always present, as are a bewildering number of movie sound bites.
I love that "Check By You, We Can't Wake Your Ass In Hollywood" sounds like an Apex Twin track has prolapsed into the bridge of a Dying Fetus song, and "Why Won’t Anyone Believe That My Teeth Need to Come Out?" sounds like a Captian Beefheart blues-line struggling for air beneath a river of Masonna runoff. And yes, I think it's hilarious that the chord changes in "everybody who built the carpal tunnel went blind afterwards" are literally too fast to be played by an actual person without the aid of a midi, and I find the sputtering, disorienting trumpet sample on "Real Rockers Wear G-Strings" endlessly amusing. If there is anything negative I could say about this album, is that it may have too many ideas. But in my book, too many ideas is a far lesser crime than too few. If the first two years of the current decade have yet to entirely rob you of your sense for adventure and sense of humor, then you should probably give Never Mind The Gap a spin.
Get a limited edition USB version of Never Mind The Gap album here.
