4 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Ippei Suda (recorded, mixed and mastered by)

With my first exposure to Hyper Gal being their previous release on Skin Graft – a representation of their second album – my judgements and expectations were based off of that. Namely: that noisemaking duo Koharu Ishida and Kurumi Kadoya make an impressive clatter, but the line between unbridled creativity and the inevitable lack of exposure for a younger artist to others in the field also made that clatter land somewhere in the range of being an art project – conceptually interesting, if maybe not always interesting to listen to.

While still working from the same essential palette of heavy, punky drums and monotone shouted vocals, Ooparts pairs that aforementioned creativity with much better – more purposeful – songcraft, resulting in an instantly catchy and grabbing listen that doesn’t betray HG’s noisiest roots.

The expectation isn’t that things be polished, or that an artist must have a defined intention, but music that bucks against the norm almost has to try harder to prove its case (complicated by / when that case is to purposefully go against the grain, but that’s where we go back to inspirations, either divine or studied, helping to guide the way). While I joined Hyper Gal already on their journey – so I’m not wholly qualified to state this – Ooparts sounds like the group growing up. As individuals, with some youthful rapaciousness cooled; and definitely as a band, taking a more holistic approach to songwriting.

Admittedly, this undercuts a degree of the appealing eff-off aspects of their sound, and that makes the balance between noisy drone and pop a bit umeven, but in exchange, noisy rushes give way to awesome, curated explosiveness, and a more judicious spread of keys and effects against the drums, guitar, and vocals – these similarly spreading their wings to include sing-song singing and background chants. And yeah, sometimes the skills charmingly lag and our duo slips off beat.

Ooparts maintains a good dose of clatter, but wraps it in off-kilter, catchy riffage and a willingness to give us songs with beginnings and ends. It’s ultimately a really killer balance, and one of the more impressive album-to-album ante ups I’ve heard.