Most of the time, press text of albums are full of cliches and unneeded banter about the past accomplishments of the band with vague words and praise. Here I was today trying to write a short intro to A&E’s new album Oi! released on the avantelectronic label Sonig which gave us Uske Orchestra, Jason Forrest, Schlammpetzeiger, Lithops, Mouse on Mars etc. and lo there’s this absolutely cool sentence that depicts the music with just enough words.

traditional sounding Japanese singing in combination with a deftly played jazz guitar plus sounds from gameboys and junkshop keyboards plus solid punk drums is clearly something you won’t hear every day. And while we’re at it: That also goes for the duo’s combination of drum’n’bass mayhem and Hawaiian lap steel sounds. And these are not the only fiendish concoctions A&E have in store for their audience. Luckily, A&E have retained their crazy (bordering on lunatic) humour and their inventiveness in dealing with all the stuff that popular music has come up with in, say, the last 70 years.

It’d really be genial if all the labels wrote their press texts this good, that way I wouldn’t try to write reviews with my limited vocabulary and just choose which music to put online!.

You might remember Andrew Sharpley from Stock, Hausen & Walkman, a clever wordplay that witty music geeks would get instantly, his chaotic compositions and simple melodies are wonderful and so are the guest artists Noel Akchote & Thierry Negro on the closer “green“, but the real killer thing on this album is clearly Emiko Ota’s vocals, coming straight from the Kabuki show. I wish I knew a little bit more Japanese than “Konichiwa” to singalong with “Otemoyan“, which is absolutely and terrifyingly viral to the point of getting 10 listens on repeat. This petite album of chaotic pop deserves more attention and preferably some headphone listens.