At a time where math rock is rife with sweaty fingers tapping furiously on fretboards to replicate the jejune twiddly-twaddly aesthetic, by golly it’s good to hear a band that cuts through the cloth with originality and experimentation. French math rock trio Ogino eschew the familial major chord twinklies that pervade this style of music and, instead, search for something with a bit more punch. A bit more surprise.
But really, their newest track ‘Février’ is as much predictable as it is unpredictable. The band carry a common guitar melody but, as the clock hits the 17 second mark, it’s clear the band are out to warp, morph, and often completely deconstruct the foundations around it. Everything is changing, yet it all sounds so familiar.
This is just a taste of things to come in the band’s upcoming album Lueurs, which will no doubt see them running with the flame that Don Caballero once carried. Like the ‘Cab, Ogino’s instrumental frolicks are well-placed within the avant-garde yarde, where music is surgically altered to form entirely new ideas and expressions. This is math rock that way we like it, in its unblemished, unfabricated, exploratory form.
Ogino’s new album ‘Leuers’ will be released in April. In the meantime, why not get acquainted with their back catalogue on Bandcamp?