Yoshiko Ohara

This is the first offering from Yoshiko Ohara, of recently disbanded experimental doom metal group Bloody Panda. Having also collaborated with the Ocean and Kayo Dot, vocalist/visual artist Ohara wanted to do something stranger on her solo debut. Her haunting, ghostly voice has lent an eerie, deeply unsettling quality to all the projects she's worked on in the past, and with Ringing in Our Wrists, that voice is unleashed at its most ethereal and inhuman. Sometimes stark and ghostly, other times layered, swirling and overwhelming, Ohara's voice isn't just the focal point of the record, it's the heart of the maelstrom. Alternately lifted and obscured by a strange collusion of synths and strings, Ringing in Our Wrists is an exploration of the aggressive and ethereal possibilities of the voice. "Symmetrical Lanterns" is a highlight, beginning with warmth and reassurance then decaying rapidly, teetering upon the edge of the chattering, howling abyss. Strange, ghastly and possessed, Wringing in Our Wrists is ideal for those who love to be horrified, unsettled or simply intrigued by the idea of a record that sounds for all the world like it was created by ghosts.