Album Review: On An Ocean Amp - We Are Now Growing Fast

Sometimes cool things happen.

About a week ago I received a comment here on the A-Z. It was from Mike McGuire, one half of the electro group On An Ocean Amp. He was surprised and happy to see his band on the blog. After all, OAOA isn't exactly your mainstream major label outfit. In return, he sent me their second album We Are Now Growing Fast. Behold! The power of the internet!

Sadly, it turns out that their second album never found a home. Doubly sad because it shows a marked improvement in the band's songwriting, a transition to more traditional song structure than their self titled debut. On An Ocean Amp is more a study in sound and textures than a traditional lyrics based album. It's mostly made up of Mike's precision cut & paste beats and granular sonic glitches, with only hints at singer Kaori Hashimoto's vocals. We Are Now Growing Fast is much more user friendly while still retaining, and in fact amplifying, Mike's attention to the teeny tiny sonic details.

From the ultra swank opening "Intro - OAOA Spacelines" we are slammed face first into the pounding "Brachioplatypus." It's a short battle, fought with SNES and Genesis controllers, but it quickly sets the mood of the album. Think it's going to be all soothing synth beds and whispery voices? Think again brutha!


"Orange Beam" takes a page directly out of The Plastics and Hikashu play books. Kaori switches into robot mode, delivering her monotone syllables over the stoic beats and basslines, while clockwork twitters and buzzes fill in the corners. "Kokoro Koro Koro," one of the album's stand out tracks (which you can here on this episode of Japanator Radio), breathes life back into the music box. A scratchy gramophone background hisses out a memory of some distant heartbreak, with the flubbering beat rolling things along. A forlorn toy keyboard melody taps out some distant communication over light-years of phone lines.

Kaori adopts a more traditional tone on "Akai Haibisukasu," chirping and keening in a high drone while a shamisen is cut to pieces underneath. The cut-up continues into "Sai Kai,"an excellent Autechre-esque glitch track that stays well away from traditional glitch pit-falls. Namely, it actually has a melody, though the stuttering pots and pans certainly try and prove otherwise.

"Talaria" drops the stuttery glitch entirely and moves into a sort of spaced-out new-wave direction, with a funky, jerky groove. "Interlude" is indeed an extremely peppy break half-way into the album. It's the soundtrack of robot cats chasing robot mice, only to find the robot mice are legion and have large robot dogs under their control. Then they all laugh it off and relax by the pool.

"New Clicky" is probably the album's crowning achievement. It's a slow burn while the pin-prick beats tumble over a solid kick that carries the song along. Kaori adds to the tension with her own soft yet urgent delivery, which all builds into a straight-forward dance track near the end. The tiny blips and bleeps turn it into a whirling synth pop gem.

"Pink DSP" is an orchestral hip-hop cut up, with its tightly looping bits and buzzing, obliterated vocals. "Flight of the Goldfish" again dips into 8-bit territory, mostly pounding away with a soft retro NES blurb bopping away in the background. "Natsu ga Kita" is another relentless song full of stuttering and jumping clips, but tempered with soft synths and blissed out vocals.

"Sure Chigai" is a slinky-as-hell deep house track with some beautiful vocoded vocals over classic techno beats. It would be perfect on any ambient collection from the mid-90s, and I mean that in the best way possible. "nl5" ends the album with a trip into a wash of reverb, finally awakening from some happy dream, the trip on OAOA Spacelines complete.

It's a bit sad to see such a great album lost to the ether. Luckily Mike was kind enough to make it available to the world through the internet. You can grab it here. You can also buy their first album here. Make sure to let Mike know what you think!