Nommo Ogo are an old school synthesizer worshipping trio from Oakland. There’s a real link to the warmth and innocent joy of electronic textures that characterised some of the early electronic pioneers. Though their ability to manage the occasional glitched up beats really places them in the here and now. They’re a little like how Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra would sound if they hung out with Autechre and Squarepusher during Warp’s golden period. The effect of their music is quite hypnotic, waves of electronic oscillating drones smattered with fragments of discarded digitalia, and occasional pieces of what may be vocals all immersed into a psychedelic ambient prog brew. Most of their pieces clock in at over eight minutes and explore all manner of territory over their journey. This refusal to be hurried to get to the point adds a further layer of complexity to the music. The first piece here, suitably titled Induction, is fifteen and a half minutes long and sounds like five pieces stuck together such is the variation. It’s musical, yet it often strays into the edge of sound, coming across alternatively like soundscape or film score, before tipping itself back into the musical realm. Walking this tightrope however is fascinating, and again serves to keep this seven track album more complex and compelling. The one criticism would be the trios overuse of those skittery electronic beats, often coming in three or four minutes in, after we’ve been lulled into a hypnotic stupor by the ambient washes of sound. The point being that we don’t necessarily need them, the music has already done its work. Across Time and Space would make a great headphone album due to both the rich detailed textures of the sounds, though also the great use of stereo techniques evidenced. Even the artwork is tripped out, multi dimensional artwork in a cross shaped digipack from artist Kelly Porter. And it’s something to behold, fitting in perfectly with the grand and complex intentions of the music.
Bob Baker Fish
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