Ovo

Ovo are a wickedly shredding husband and wife duo from Milan, Italy who have pushed their thick, chugging sound to some serious heights for their first American release, Miastenia. Not your average guitar and drums duo, Ovo spray their passionate deliveries all over the meaty underground map, and will definitely be shaking their appeal to fans of Harry Pussy, early Yoko Ono, Deerhoof and Afrirampo with moves to spare. The first half of this ball-busting effort runs thru a gamut of styles over seven tracks, as Stefania Pedretti strangulates, growls or coos her throat muscles every way she can, and the guitar occasionally gets put aside for creeping violin, droning cello, harmonica, or piano to lay over the skilled, pounding drum processions to form the framework for Ovo’s workouts. The final 20-minute title track begins as a sort of stoner metal trudge before disintegrating into psych-concrete for a time, then coming back with the steadily eroding tension once more. "Voodoo” with its churning cello crawl lurking over the boxed floor toms is definitely one of this album’s finest moments, but there is much more here to be very, very excited about.