Oh Astro - Hello World

Genre IDM Publisher Illegal Art External Links Official Website Illegal Art

Oh Astro is Jane Dowe is who knows, no-one's willing to say. But whoever she is, the Hello World EP is the sound of her blinking rapidly, constantly, and electronically. The record was made using software designed by Dowe, but some beats and sounds were apparently contributed by friends, and much of the material being subverted here plausibly could have been nicked from other recordings, making her choice of label apparently appropriate.

"Everything Is Go!" stutters rhythmically through what sounds like an already rejiggered, IDM'd hip-hop song with a New Wave hook, all lyrics save "we must" virtually intelligible. "Mizel" bobs and weaves past a warped soul choir, their massed exultations skipped here, daubed there, unrecognizable as human most of the time. Dowe chops up more unidentified hip-hop bravado for "All My Favorite," bouncing somebody's tough-talking syllables on a trampoline of tuneless synths and punctuating with finger snaps until you could care less what or who might being repped or pimped or whatever behind the evil sonic kalideoscope. DJ scratches get fucked with royally on "Lame Arm Qwert," and the rest of the time Dowe contents herself with tweaking what sounds like weak IDM to a mind-bending extent. More, please, and keep it coming...mysterious stranger.