#math punk

Once upon a time, Uzi Fox as well as Mihael Keehl were actually titled Ufoufo2 at some point. I knew from the inception of Ufoufo1 that a sequel was an inevitability, but as I came to the titling process toward the end of each album's creation I knew that they were too experiemental, not core enough to my sound. At the end of the day I'd been venturing so far from my source style, a Ufoufo2 was delayed again and again. Something happened after I recorded Joyboy. It was as if all of that mental blockage, that which halted Uzi Fox, nearly killed Mihael Keehl, paused the still-unreleased precursor to Joyboy, all of that obstacle had completely been obliterated. I was writing music with a newfound freedom. I sounded so... Ufoufoufo. So here it was, I knew by two tracks in, THIS was the album, THIS was the sequel to that humble mathcore beginning. This album is still so fresh in my mind, it's hard to say much. As I write this, the album has been out for only two months (though it feels like so much longer). What can I say other than this is my strongest foot forward? The production is at my best, the riffs are fun, the vocals are shredding, the lyrics are prose, and despite all of that it feels like just the beginning of the true Ufoufoufo era. This album is the one where I've found my sound. Experimentation will always be for me, but this is the style I want to hone. This is Ufoufoufo.

Original:

Instrumental:

toasted plastic

Artist: Go Daijo

Release: Boss Truck

There's something inherently youthful and exuberant about Seattle’s Go Daijo. Perhaps it’s their Cap’n Jazz-meets-Japandroids brand of math-punk. Or, maybe it's how they literally laugh their way through "Power Go," the first of two songs on their debut EP, Boss Truck. Either way, it sounds like a damn good time: drums crash chaotically into guitars, but the guitars hold their own, with spazzed-out melodies kept in line with consistently tight hooks.

Their second song, “Angel Hair” starts off on a slow, droning blues progression, before turning up the reverb and building into an upbeat post-punk number that maybe Television would have written back in the day. Singer / drummer Cameron LaFlam’s swaggering vibrato shines on this particular track, and basically, 5:15 onwards is divine.

Because of the ADHD nature of Go Daijo, what you really hear are 6, maybe 8, very short songs spanning a couple genres here, a couple decades there. Understandably, this seeming lack of coherency may be a turn off to some listeners. But on closer examination, Boss Truck is three dudes with a lot of ideas on the table, playing exactly what they want, when they want, how they want. And frankly, it's a very cool thing.