We’re three months into the horrors of the current U.S. administration and have just a little over six months to go until Halloween. You know what that means: it’s time to start thinking about spooky music. Luckily for us, last week, producer Brain Damage (of English synthpop band Saint Etienne), singer Emiko Ota (of post-punk group OKZ), and dub legend Mad Professor released Oide Oide, an album all about ghosts.

More accurately, Oide Oide is about yōkai, spirits from Japanese folklore that range from gentle to mischievous to downright frightening. Ota brings her voice to five distinct yōkai on five distinct tracks, each subsequently remixed by the Mad Professor into a corresponding dub version. She goes all in every time, and Brain Damage stays flexible, propelling her lyrics into full fledged vignettes with a wide spectrum of sounds. A quick track-by-track read (with many thanks to yokai.com for supplemental information):

“Katsura Otoko.” The album opens with sparse, crackling flute and string squiggles, quickly lifted up by buoyant dub beats and given shape with lashings of electric guitar. Ota enters at a whisper and weaves subtly between seductive and menacing. The titular yōkai is both, an unbearably handsome man in the moon with vampiric tendencies: he is irresistible even as he drains the life force of anyone who gazes upon him. Ota is both gazer and gazed upon here, and the tension is palpable. Spookiness level: high.

“Tenome.” Far less sensuous but just as dreadfully fascinating is the tenome, a yōkai who takes the form of an elderly man with his eyes in the palms of his hands and hunts for fresh human bones in the dead (ha!) of night. Ota takes an especially dramatic approach to this character; her voice wavers as she engages in a broader kind of haunting over more straight-ahead reggae rhythms and weird synths. Spookiness level: medium.

“Isogashi.” My favorite of the five pieces is a fast-paced tribute to the spirit of restlessness itself. Punky, synthy, and frantic, it generates an electrifying amount of energy through Ota’s in-stereo shouts and some especially artful pop rock sounds from Brain Damage. It’s the kind of non-stop motion that fuels the isogashi, and it’s obvious Ota isn’t about to run out of steam even as she keeps running. Spookiness level: low.

“Azuki Arai.” Named for a shy bean-grinding yōkai that is typically heard rather than seen, this airy, eerie waltz clocks in at under two minutes: the azuki arai hides from anyone who might witness it as quickly as it can. Backed by accordions, Ota becomes a wisp. Spookiness level: VERY high.

“Baku.” The holy chimerical baku is a symbol of luck with “the body of a bear, the head of an elephant, the eyes of a rhinoceros, the tail of an ox, and the legs of a tiger” (yokai.com). There’s a mystical quality to the track named for it, Ota chanting in ritualseque style as she bequeaths the spirit a nightmare. It’s a truly grand finale to the album, keyboard loops swirling outward and away from the human world. Spookiness level: medium.

The dub versions of these tracks are good and sometimes a little more spooky; Mad Professor knows how to add a satisfying echo to the mix. They’re not terribly different from the original versions–the addition of Mad Professor here may not have been the best use of anyone’s time, brilliant though he is–but the added percussion on “Tenome Dub” feels classic, and “Baku Dub” gets a nice punch-up. Ultimately, though, this is an engaging enough album that it’s just as enjoyable to listen to each track twice over, even with only minimal changes. Oide Oide is a spectral exploration well worth taking.

7/10

About the author’s biases:
Adriane doesn’t care much about Halloween one way or the other, but she really likes it when women vocalists get weird with it.