Ohama

Earth History Multiambient

BY Daniel SylvesterPublished Nov 9, 2010

Unless you caught his interview on the Much Music's The New Music back in 1985 or picked up Stones Throw Record's excellent The Minimal Wave Tapes compilation, you most likely haven't heard Ohama. Born and raised on a potato farm in Rainier, AB, Tona Walt Ohama has been crafting first-generation synth and reel-to-reel pop for over three decades. Earth History Multiambient (his first LP since 1994) is an expertly packaged double-disc set featuring eight new compositions (Earth), an anthology of previously released works (History) and "disc 0" (Multiambient), which contains seven ambient MP3s embedded into disc two, intended to be played simultaneously. Although Earth lacks the zeitgeist of his early material, the advent of the bubbling electronics and apathetic-in-tone/revolutionary-in-delivery music on History and the Zareeka-style genius of Multiambient make this collection another must-have lost gem in Canadian music, one in step with John Oswald's Plunderphonics and Bruce Haack's Electric Lucifer.
(Ohama)

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