Burbling and sputtering like a robot with six cents, a paperclip and a piece of chewing gum for a brain, Oh Astro's debut comes to life like the most good-natured pop deconstructor in the history of recorded music. Champions of Wonder takes every possible available pop influence—sing-a-longs, showtunes-esque hooks, wriggling beats and more—and knits them all together with the gaps between the edges intact; all the pieces of the puzzle don't naturally fit together, but Oh Astro holds them in line with the most tenuous of strings. That doesn't necessarily mean that the concoction that Oh Astro manufactures is the most sensible one; the pitch-shifting vocals of "Lucy Sees the Moon" and inverted synths on "Empty Air" shouldn't make for an easy listen as all of the parts in the songs shift unendingly, but if you take Champions of Wonder as a whole, miraculously the album takes on a very light air of literal sonic play—both in execution and production. As this album shows, Oh Astro find music to be a mercurial and capricious beast and, if you can follow them through the maze, Champions of Wonder is a slippery and enigmatic thing of beauty—you just have to keep your ears and mind open.
More on Oh Astro: www.oh-astro.com
Download: "Snow Queen" from Champions Of Wonder – [mp3]
Download: "Hello Fuji Boy" from Champions of Wonder – [mp3]
