Budokan Boys - The Ooze

 Released: October 31

When I picked up this album, I could swear I vaguely remember hearing something from Budokan Boys before. After listening, I’m still not sure if I had or not, but I can say for sure that this album is almost immediately attention grabbing. From the weird delayed pads and strange straining vocals of the the very first track “Sorceress,” it’s an odd and fun little journey of psychedelic textures imprinted on almost every element. The vocal treatments throughout the album vary but they all have this strained but also slightly cartoonish quality to all of them. I think the closest thing really get to serious is on the second track, “The Ooze.” But even here any sincere attempt at seriousness is immediately undercut which makes it feel like a dad joke about existential dread. It sounds preposterous but it is honestly a pretty genius amalgam of moods condensed into one weird track. 

The motif of there being a persistent uncertainty regarding the seriousness or lack thereof runs heavily throughout the album. It’s such a fun mix of weird sounds and half-serious lyrics that makes for a genuinely entertaining listen. One of my favorite manifestations of this comes on “Magic Power,” which is a mind-spinningly preposterous song. It features a vocal that feels a bit drowned out but still present going on and on about being given magic powers. This free-form pseudo-poetry continues on as saxophones, percussion and horns saunter on in the mire, sounding exceptionally distorted, spaced out, and glitched up to such a degree that the whole track sounds like swimming in a colorful delirium. 

It’s overall a very colorful and weird album. It ties in a great deal of oddly psychedelic elements with clever vocal performance and novel sound usage. It’s a fantastic listening experience that feels like it might be slightly much in certain parts, but wisely knows when to pull back long enough for the listener to acclimate.