Eggs

Oh No Ono | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 26, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Friendly Fire
• ASIN: B002YP4F1E
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #313,502 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Oh No Ono is an experimental pop quintet from the tiny Danish town of Aalborg. Their music, intricate and otherworldly, defies conventions and expectations (and sometimes gravity). The ten dense, hypertextured sour-sweet-sad opuses found on their US debut album, Eggs, are truly breathtaking to behold; the band creates bewitching pop symphonies that unfold themselves more with each successive listen.

Already stars in their home country of Denmark, Oh No Ono ( which consists of Aske Zidore, Nicolai Koch, Kristoffer Rom, Malthe Fischer, and Nis Svoldgård) has capitalized on a wave of Scandinavian press, touring extensively, and receiving surprising amounts of radio and video airplay for a group so focused on an aesthetic of capriciousness and experimentation. After receiving the "Breakthrough of the Year" award from the DR (the Danish equivalent of the BBC), the band jumped into the Scandinavian festival circuit, drawing the attention of, among others, NME, who said of the band: "[T]hey sound like Devo sticking their fingers in a powersocket... at a helium balloon factory... on the moon."

But the members of Oh No Ono were always trying to attack something bigger. And Eggs, their US debut on Brooklyn-based Friendly Fire Recordings, is nothing if not bigger - it is nothing short of virtuosic. To record the album, the band locked themselves away in a small country house on the Danish isle of Mon for nine months. And yet Eggs is the anything but claustrophobic; reaching beyond traditional guitar/bass/drum textures, the band weaves myriad environmental sounds, samples, and nonstandard instrumentation into the mix. The sound of bird flocks taking flight are followed by woodwind players. Percussion is played on a water-filled tub. Elephants are heard, being elephants. A massive choir of Oh No Ono's friends sing along with the organ in a 300-year-old church.

Which is not to say the band spent all nine months cuddling trees and Pinking their Floyds. Like their contemporaries Animal Collective, the propulsive yet fundamentally beautiful pop Oh No Ono creates ties together all the ear games. Eggs' vivacious, even lusty approach to songcraft is the trademark of a band determined to approach pop music via the hard road, without ever losing track of the fact that they are creating pop music. From the shimmering textures of "The Wave Ballet" to the operatic splendor of "Icicles", from the cacophonic underwater pop of "Eleanor Speaks" to the falsetto singalongs of "The Tea Party," this is a band whose command of melody is superlative, and whose ability to channel and transform their myriad musical influences into something genuinely unique and entrancing is thrilling.

Other talented artists have begun to take notice of Oh No Ono - the packaging for Eggs, lovingly crafted by Malene Mathiasson, features embossed, egg-shaped artwork and a series of darkly sexual, mix-and-match paintings that would do Francis Bacon proud. And the aesthetically beautiful - albeit slightly disturbing - video for lead single "Swim," directed by rising Danish director Adam Hashemi, managed to top Pitchfork.tv's charts (Tobias Stretch, whose video credits include Radiohead's "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi," is already hard at work on a new video for the band). But ultimately it's the songs on the album - bizarre, melodic, catchy, beautiful - that make Oh No Ono shine. There are wonderful hatchlings waiting to emerge from Eggs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh No Ono - Eggs 8/10, February 4, 2010

By 

Rudolph Klapper "klap4music" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eggs (Audio CD)

Oh No Ono's first record to be released on U.S. soil is an album fraught with contrasts and the kind of opposites-attract mentality that so many "weird" pop bands, from Of Montreal to recent Animal Collective, have championed. It's a record that is at times incredibly easy to sing along to and at others is so undeniably odd that it's almost creepily off-putting. And like Oh No Ono themselves, Eggs is just a hard album to place in general. The band themselves, a Danish quintet who have been around since 2003, mix electro-pop with experimental noise and the occasional dollop of funk or gothic new-wave, all with a nasally singer who calls to mind MGMT or John Lennon on a vast variety of uppers and several hits of LSD.

Having never listened to Oh No Ono before, it's impossible for me to tell whether Eggs is a progression of their sound or something altogether new, but I can tell you this: Eggs might be the most bipolar record I've heard so far this year, at times crafting some of the purest, sugary melodies this side of Beach House and at others sounding so impeccably f***** up that it's difficult to determine whether they're entirely serious. The weirdly serious, almost threateningly long "Eve" and the synth stabs of the sinister "Icicles" are the most prominent of the latter, and when taken in comparison with the rest of the record, they stand out like sore thumbs. But then again, in the context of Oh No Ono's anything-goes mentality, I suppose it makes sense. And in the proud tradition of psychedelic pioneers like Syd Barrett and the Flaming Lips, Oh No Ono refuse to compromise on their strangeness.

From the Middle Eastern vibe of "Eleanor Speaks" to the majestic church bells on "Swim" to the nearly ten-minute long, grandiose freak-out of closer "Beelitz," Eggs throw everything and the kitchen sink into this amalgam of indie but steady it with the all-important hooks of some truly talented songwriters. Don't be mistaken; you'll never hear a song like "Swim" or the mellow flow of "The Wave Ballet" on alternative radio, but beneath all the layers of psychedelia and sonic textures are hooks and harmonies so pristine and effortlessly shiny that it's hard not to get stuck in your head.

Eggs should be a ridiculously confounding work, as layered and tremendously outsized with neon bells and tie-dyed whistles as it is, but once you get past the sometimes piercing nasal whine of singer Malthe Fischer and the intimidating array of instruments and influences, you'll discover some truly affecting pop gems: the sparkling radiance of "The Tea Party" (which initially reminded me of Zelda: Ocarina of Time . . . bizarre), the upbeat hop of "Mis Miss Moss," the lovesick chorus of "Helplessly Young." But most of all, you'll discover a band that isn't afraid to tear down the constraints of everyday, regular indie pop and inject a healthy dose of eccentricity into one of music's most timeworn and loved equations.

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative Recording, March 28, 2010

By 

James King - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eggs (Audio CD)

Seriously good. Very Beach Boys/Beatles in the spirit of Animal Collective and/or Grizzly Bear. The stand-out track is "Internet Warrior" but all are worthy. Again, seriously good.

0 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh!, January 13, 2010

By 

B. Matthias "jibrima" (Kutztown, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eggs (MP3 Download)

I've only listened to the samples so far... Unique, refreshing, lush, layered... It's on my wish list! Take a listen!!!!