I saw OTAY:ONII live a few months ago, and by the end of the set I was in tears. I can’t pinpoint what set me off or what even made me feel so emotional watching the show. To observe from a distance, a live performance by Otay:Onii flirts outrageously with the absurd; costume changes, masks, instruments I’ve never seen before (perhaps homemade?)… but there is an underlying sincerity that makes the whole experience so human that it becomes all consuming.
Otay:onii is a project from Chinese-born, US-based Lane Shi. Lane is also a part of Elizabeth Colour Wheel who I will no doubt write about another time. She is softly spoken and a very gentle soul off stage, but when she performs a whole other beast is unleashed. Lane’s careful presentation and attention to detail doesn’t prevent her using her physical form - and its relationship to her audience - as an extension and conduit of her music.
At the time that I watched the show, I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to spend much time with the new record, Dream Hacker, so I went into the experience somewhat blind. Otay:onii is a combination of electronic, synth-led music, and ambient sound collage. It’s often abstract, hypnotically rhythmic, and overall very melodic (although occasionally she veers into noise territory). Her beautiful, melancholic voice ties everything together. Lane brings the otherworldly, unexplainable elements of life into her art, lavishing them with time, consideration and care. It’s a joy to do the same with what she creates.
Dream Hacker is available HERE.
Speaking of all consuming live performances… a couple of weeks ago I saw PHARMAKON live for the first time. Debuting an all-new set, the first few minutes were so ridiculously abrasive I confess that I doubted if I could stick it out. But 35 minutes later I was left blinking and bemused as the house lights came up - and I was eager for more.
Margaret Chardiet makes relentlessly bleak noise; metal on metal, bone on bone, with some soul destroying vocals for good measure. It’s not for the faint of heart, but witnessing it live it’s a full on experience second to none. My hair and cheeks were vibrating. The set I saw consisted of as yet unreleased music, so presumably there’s a new album somewhere on the horizon - but if you get a chance to see Pharmakon live, that is how this poison is best consumed.
Recommended listening: Bestial Burden.
What drives a band to reunite? Unfinished business? Unrealised potential? Unpaid bills? I recently went to see BOTCH - their first European show in 22 years. I loved every minute.
Botch is a metalcore/mathcore band that was released by Hydra Head Records in the 90s and into the early 2000’s before they called it a day. I think of them as a hardcore band but with more complexity than what typically flies under that banner. They came up alongside bands like Converge, The Blood Brothers, and The Dillinger Escape Plan, and after their demise continued to be highly influential to countless musicians over the years.
I was unaware of Botch in the year 2000 (unlike many of the other attendees at this recent show, who wore their former Botch show attendances as a badge of honour). It would be another year or two before I got to know their music, and probably another few years after that before it dawned on me that I would probably never see them live.
But things change: I found myself boarding a plane to The Metherlamds and less than 12 hours later basking in the afterglow of a great show. One of the things that made it so enjoyable for me was that the band themselves seemed to be having a great time. That kind of positive energy is shared between band and audience, and near impossible to fake. At Outbreak Festival last weekend, Meechy Darko put it best:
“The show is never just about the person on the stage.”
Anyway, if you’re not familiar with Botch, start with We Are The Romans - and don’t be put off by the one-upmanship of old timers, there’s still room for you at these comeback shows.
Recommended listening: An Anthology of Dead Ends or - this tour setlist playlist I made.
Thank you for reading! If you liked my newsletter, please tell somebody about it - I would be so grateful.
~ Becky
(Image below shows Botch on stage at Patronaat, Haarlem, NL)
+10 respect for The Metherlamds