(Inkoma 10/25/2002) Luv Rokambo - Do The Glimpse, - the japanese couple doesn't lose the poin of former two cd's (read past 31-May-olds), always released by indie label Public Eyesore, specialized in experimental sounds: be sure that song-form/shape is as never far from here, - on the contrary, here You are its negation: beaten/hammered guitars, out of tone, feedback&treble, long tracks of arhythmic noise, - and rarely a male voice Toru Yoneyama's one), in a faint lament. Score of most hallucinated episodes of an ideal indie movie, - long road trips through the desert, under drugs or water-less. Excellent to be heard to drive You into r.e.m. phase, or just to read a book of pulp stories. - Vono

(Indieville 12/1/2002) The Beatles made pop music. The Animals made pop music. The Byrds made pop music. Luv Rokambo does not make pop music. Luv Rokambo instead makes Japanese free rock experimental crazy insane (insert string of synonyms for "maniacal") music. With freaky guitar anti-melodies, completely unconventional vocals, and assorted oddball "toys" in action, the band seems absolutely content to just pick up some guitars and have some fun. And it's brilliant. Some songs are quiet and a bit pondering, like "Lament" and "Boys Couldn't Twist," while others ("Glimpse," "Drupe") are completely loud and abrasive, shooting forth with powerful aggression and energy. The tracks are very spasmodic and impulsive - in fact, it's next to impossible to figure out whether the band even know what they're doing half the time. But this energetic nonsense is what lends the recording a truly carefree touch. When the heavy ringing feedback comes in on "Drupe," you're left wondering, "is that supposed to be there?" But then you think, "if it's not, then why doesn't it work so well?" It's fascinating, at the very least. Undoubtedly the best aspect of Do The Glimpse is the atmosphere. Suited best for the dark, this is the ultimate soundtrack for late-night death races down suburban streets lit by psychedelic streetlights. You can just imagine yourself rocketing down in a barrage of blurred lights and garden lawns while the crazed guitar-raping of "Drupe" plays on full blast in the background. Like Caspar Brotzmann on crack, these maniacally noisy guitar freak-outs are sure to satisfy any guitar improv fan. If you're the type of person who values discordance over melody, then you'll probably enjoy this. If you run scared as soon as a song moves away from the standard chorus-verse formula, well, you may want to look elsewhere. - Matt Shimmer

(Aiding & Abetting no. 236) Two guys, Toru Yoneyama and Osam Kato, who generally play guitar. There are other noises (both also play keyboards from time to time, and Yoneyama is credited with "toys" as well), but most of the music to be found here resides somewhere between the dueling axes. Perhaps I'm leaving an incorrect impression with that last statement. While the guitars certainly do play off each other (and in fact, the music is at its finest when both are playing their six-strings), the sound is hardly a metal meltdown. The sound is improvisational, with an interesting bluesy feel. Know how some improvised music can be tedious because there's no structure? Not a problem here. Luvrokambo sets definite parameters for its songs, and the experimentation colors in between those lines. What I like best is the way these guys can almost constantly surprise without simply throwing in the kitchen sink every piece. These boys are inventive without resorting to utterly unfettered structure. A most impressive sound, indeed. - Jon Worley

(AmbiEntrance 5/2003) Straddling some unseen divider between electric guitar rock, ethnomusic and sheer experimentalism, a duo of Japanese guitarists Do The Glimpse into a strange and lively place between. Ringing strings jangle at a slow-fast-slow-fast pace as Toru Yoneyama and Osam Kato grace lament with murmur-to-a-wail vocals. Squealing/ throbbing/ yelling/ hovering alien precedes the crazy surf-rock freakout of boys couldn't twist and its spastically agitated strums, streaming feedback and relatively "mellower" final twangs. In glimpse (9:06), a buzzing mantra explodes in sharp-edged attacks which intensify toward something like a machine running so fast it's self-destructing... eardrum-piercing highs, anguished moans and impenetrable energies ensue. Soft crooning and writhing electric wraiths combine in drupe, atonally charming like a bedroom-amateur's warble-strum number. harrow!! it's me (1:10) says goodbye with a brief stream of buzzes, bleeps, thrums and muted mechanical-esque drones. Wild and weird! High on spirit, not so high on listenability, zero on "ambient". - David J. Opdyke

(Vital Weekly no. 337) Luv Rokambo are two Japanese blokes: Toru Yoneyama on electric guitar, keyboard, toys and vocals and Osam Kato on electric and acoustic guitar, keyboard and vocal. It seems to me that the seven tracks on this release were recorded in an one day studio jam. The improvisations are built around the use of guitars and feedback and the vocals. Incredible free rock music in the same vein as Mr. Haino (err to mention one, really). Sometimes esoteric singing and the guitars playing chordless strumming sounds, sometimes upfront violent and noisy. It's well thought out music, played with care and precision, made with love. - Frans de Waard

(Neo-Zine) This is almost creepy, but more spaerse and desolate. I hear mostly guitar, no distortion, or minimal keyboard drone, and this wonderfully painful chanting that sounds like the wail of a mother burying her only child. This is quite dark, sometimes ambient in a spacey sort of way, but always very unique and flavorful. This moves slowly, strictly for dragging at the mood and prickling the nerves. I could listen to a lot more stuff like this. Seems very worldly and intelligent without being complicated or overindulgent. - CHC

(All Music Guide) Toru Yoneyama and Osam Katos third CD-r for Public Eyesore as the duo Luv Rokambo, Do the Glimpse shows no noticeable improvement from 2001s Maze. The latter already documented the units fast growth; one could not expect the same increment a second time in a row. Luv Rokambo still rides many experimental ponies at once: non-idiomatic free improv, the Acid Mothers Temples psychedelic freak-out jams, Naturalistes anarchic noise all come to mind at various points, but these influences are not integrated into a whole. They are rather episodically visited. Sound quality is barely a notch above previous recordings, which means that it still lacks clarity to let us scrutinize all the subtleties (even though the word seems a little strong) of the musicians interplay. They use their voice to good avail, but it remains buried in the mix. Lament opens the set with a nice improv, including some clever use of toys. The other highlight is Drupe, a merciless guitar barrage with a surprising finale. There is something uncomfortable in Luv Rokambos music, even for seasoned noise/improv/avant-garde listeners. Genuine artistic intention and raw talent are shrouded by amateurishness. Determining whether that is intentional or not is the difficult part. One minute you think this group has tremendous potential, the next youre ready to say its rubbish. - François Couture

(Touching Extremes) Yoneyama and Kato are quite a duo: with just guitar, vocals, keyboards and toys they're able to raise some serious psychedelic hell. Meandering through repetitive trance mayhem, native indian-like chanting, bastard rhythms, noisy assaults, Luv Rokambo manage to fill the gap between Keiji Haino and Merzbow, never disguising their almost naive attitude - better still, making a major force point of it. Ear-flogging segments explode after long hypnotic parts in a dissonant river that, even in a lo-fi setting, is floriferous and full of micro-organisms apt to fill your room with good, tasty soundcurrents difficult to be contained by any sort of floodgate. - Massimo Ricci

(Ampersand Etcetera 7/2005) The third PE outing for this Japanese duo of mainly guitarists. Recorded in a single day, the album often has a fragmentary feeling and the feel of improvisation, while developing a strong presence. Lament opens with melodic guitars, shifts into a period of chant-like vocals, accompanied by the guitar. Alien shifts between simple keyboard and electronica into singong and picked guitar and then a twingly guitar solo over puttering that suddenly ends. Two big guitars in parallel jamming solos give us slides, feedback and runs in Boys couldnıt twist; a guitar solo climax opens Squeezer that suddenly drops into soft guitar bass and toy squeeze box, then into choppy guitar and voices that gets noisy. In some ways a highlight, Glimpse is provisional and distant as a big humming, bits of guitar, wild drum bursts, noises and feedback, all interwoven with no bombast but rather a strange delicacy. Drupe is an almost song of guitar noodles and ringing, while Harrow!! Itıs me is a brief collage of noises. An unusual mix of guitar heroics and improvisation that is surprisingly lucid. - Jeremy Keens