Rising from the brittle crust of the same Northeastern coast thatbirthed labelmates USAISAMONSTER, Eloe Omoe is a duo of considerablyless refinement. While their aesthetic is likely to find support in theRuins/Lightning Bolt camp, the band comes off sounding so elementalthat I worry they have compromised themselves by cutting a record atall. This 12", their first release, contains five live tracks: meresnippets or little windows into what seem less like a few scatteredshows between '99 and '01 than random stops along an un-halting,nomadic traversal of New England, powered by a vaguely primitiveimpulse, unseen, unknown, and nearly lost on these recordings. Themusic is a tumbling, thoroughly abstract mess of effected bass rumble,draped with drum parts that descend, deconstruct, and fall apart toinvisible cues. All five pieces sound improvised, the two playersrarely coming together for anything "thematic" to emerge; the onlyclear indications that they are not playing in different rooms are afew abrupt stops and a unified effort to keep the songs in a kind ofperpetual collapse. The recording is understandably of poor quality,and, while bands like Lightning Bolt and USAISAMONSTER might haverigorous structures or goofy posturing to compensate, Eloe Omoe suffersmore openly. Theirs is really more of a jazzist take on the noise rockgame, and as such, the music's visceral, performative nature becomes alarge part of its appeal, lost on such a recording. Again, fans of agrassroots noise aesthetic will appreciate the record, Sam Rowell'ssqualling bass in particular, though I'd be interested to see how alittle studio tweaking would effect the group's sound, for better orworse. Read More
