Genre: Avant Garde/ DIY/ Industrial/ Noise/ Post Rock
Track Listing:
01 Hue - IntrooVoodoo
02 OvO - Voodoo (alternative mix)
03 Buben - Remix Six
04 Harshcore - Vooodooo
05 Sparkle In Grey - 114 Voodoos
06 Larsen Lombriki - LombrikoVoodoo
07 Mark Hamn - A Day for Reflection
08 Amy Denio - IchiOvO
09 Luminous - Luminous Mix
10 Andrea Marutti - E.S.P. Reconstruction
VIDEO Whalesland/ Voodoo Video - Invernomuto
OvO is an Italian music project consisting of Stefania Pedretti (also singer of Allun and solo performer aka ?Alos) and Bruno Dorella (a performer in such bands as Ronin and Bachi da Pietra, former drummer of Wolfango and Bugo and owner of Bar La Muerte Records). The duo decided to create OvO as a touring band, a decision which led them to perform live concerts throughout Europe and North America from 2001 until present, with stops in Mexico and Turkey, performing a total of more than 500 concerts since that time. In the summer of 2009 they have been touring the United States with northern California space-rockers, Sub-Arachnoid Space.
OvO's sound seems to be an updating of Futurist and Dadaist aesthetic that contains aspects of sound poetry (i.e. Kurt Schwitters' 'Ursonate'), avant garde theater and improvisational rhythm-based industrial music. Their first album, “Assassine” (2001), and the second, “Vae Victis” (2002), were both released by Bar La Muerte and included contributions from musician friends and acquaintances of the band. After split releases with Rollerball and KK Null, OvO definitively became a duo and this change was marked by the release of their third album “Cicatrici” (2004), a co-production of Bar La Muerte and Ebria Records. In 2006 the work 'Miastenia' was released by the prominent American label, Load Records. In 2008 two remix albums were released: 'OvO Rmxd By Daniele Brusaschetto' (Blossoming Noise) and this release, "Voodoo Rewoork" (Moriremo Tutti Records).
'Voodoo Rewoork' is an interesting album of diverse remixes and recontextualizations of the track, 'Voodoo', from the "Miastenia" CD, plus an unreleased version of the original song. This CDR, limited to 180 copies, features ten different artists from around the world, including Amy Denio, Larsen Lombriki, Sparkle in Grey, Luminous, Andrea Marutti, OvO itself and more. Most surprising is how well the album holds together considering these are all mixes of the same track.
Andrea Marutti's contribution, 'E.S.P. Reconstruction' is the best of the set, recasting the track as a deep dark-ambient piece, starting out like something from 'Eraserhead' and, in the end, revealing it's roots in classic industrial music. Amy Denio's 'IchiOvO' does something similar by creating an alien drone backdrop that rises and converges with the rhythmic elements. Luminous' remix emphasizes the tom drums and overloads the volume to distortion, sounding something like early Test Dept. In another permutation, Sparkle In Grey's '114 Voodoos' emphasizes Stefania's strange vocal garbling, with the cello sounds moving around the stereo-field. Mark Hamn's track, 'A Day for Reflection', is notable as he removes the rhythms altogether, replacing them instead with beautiful improvisational piano lines. OvO themselves contribute an interesting alternate mix of their composition.
An excellent album that, despite it's singular source material, sounds very cohesive and much more expansive in scope than one would expect. Every track here is of interest and a testament perhaps to OvO's choices in collaboration. What could've been dull, given the context, is instead fascinating, as each artist finds something unique to reveal in the original composition.
