(Cho-Yaba E-Zine) D'emblée, le duo Toru Yoneyama et Osamu Kato brouillent les pistes. Ou plutôt ne laissent-ils que de maigres indices. Aucun texte de présentation ne vient présenter ces deux inconnus, ce qui est fort regrettable. C'est seulement à l'écoute qu'on pourra dire que Luv Rokambo est avant tout un duo de guitares. "Avant tout" car sur la pochette green-oroco-g (?) et stratocaster prennent place au côté de divers ustensiles : toys, mobile, percussion, rapman le tout étant accompagné de temps à autre par la voix de l'un et de l'autre. Aussi, à l'écoute des première notes de How Are U?, on pourrait se croire dans l'univers bricolo-électro de Yuko Nexus 6 ou de Yasuhiro Otani. Pourtant des morceaux comme Tremolo Indicator ou Cosmic Elegy sont totalement construits, si l'on peux employer ce mot, autour des deux six cordes...Les différents gadgets ne servent finalement pas de cache misère comme on aurait pu le craindre -mais pour autant, il ne s'agit pas d'un disque de virtuoses. Tout semble fait pour éviter le choc frontal avec l'instrument : Toru Yoneyama et Osamu Kato jouent avec les larsens, le vibrato, ils tordent les cordes ou jouent du glissando jusqu'à plus soif...Et quand quelques notes s'esquissent, c'est avant tout pour parodier un riff blues rock graisseux. Sorti sur le jeune label de CDr Public Eyesore, ce Luv Rokambo manque peut-être un peu de maturité : le jeu de guitare n'est ni très maîtrisé ni très personnel, mais l'approche punk pallie ce manque. Dans une certaine mesure le duo peut faire penser à Eugene Chadbourne pour l'approche iconoclaste et le son brut, qui semble ici avoir été retravaillé en studio pour dépolir un écrin trop parfait. Comme dans un bootleg des Stooges, l'énergie et la fraîcheur priment par rapport au contenu qui, s'il est interessant, n'est pas toujours assez neuf pour être percutant. Toru Yoneyama et Osamu Kato montrent qu'ils osent, tout simplement...par exemple utiliser une boîte à rythme osbsolète dans How Dare U?, justement. L'énergie circule, libre, comme au travers de la voix de Cameroon, mais elle se perd aussi parfois comme dans ce Chicago moite, ennuyeux et trainant comme un dimanche après midi dans une grande ville. Il y aurait eu deux ou trois bonnes idées de plus, on aurait dit que le duo faisait de nécessité vertu...Luv Rokambo reste cependant un disque très attachant, où les douze cordes s'enroulent comme les arabesques de la pochette. Il suffirait d'un rien pour que ces pattes de mouches, cet usage trop insistant du vibrato ou des effets se transforment en gribouillis rageurs. Reste qu'il est toujours interessant de découvrir des artistes frais émoulus finalement très prometteurs et qui ne demande qu'à s'affirmer. -Florent Delual
(I Am Cancer) an odd, yet compeling take on somewhat, primative noise music. andy says it makes him feel like he is taking a really bad shit in the alaskan wilderness. i would add that it would have been taken place in a port-o-let with a bottomless hole. while it conjures up primative feelings and settings, there is also a great deal of broken electronics and digital delay guitar work going on. or so it would seem. one can never really tell. i do know that through out there are some disjointed blues riffs that start popping up, backed by the occasional thunder drumming, and vocals that remind me of a sasquatch or yeti. this could all be due to my watching TLC's "search for bigfoot", and "search for the abominable snowman". they never did find those suckers. - Chris Fischer
(Blastitude no. 12)Yet another Public Eyesore release. This a duo between Toru Yoneyama (green-oroco-g, toys, mobile, percussion, vocals) and Osamu Kato (stratocaster, rapmen, vocals). "LUV ROKAMBO" contains six tracks and is just under 44 minutes. As with all Public Eyesore releases, this follows suit with an experimental/improvisational recording. What differs slightly here is a sort of schizophrenic playfulness that weaves in and out of the music making itself apparent occasionally. The subtleness of this aspect is what makes its quality appropriate. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that "LUV ROKAMBO" is a sarcastic record but it does have a sense of humor. It’s somewhat plodding but it's there. "How Are U?" is the first track. At slightly over a minute and a half it sets the tone with a tongue in cheek squeal. Followed by "Cameroon" which is the longest track on the album. This track opens up the schizo can of worms, though it's never abrupt in approach. These drifting changes remain fairly constant throughout the remainder of the record. The record contains a lot of electronic meandering mixed with various guitar approaches. Namely, the influences that I hear are primarily John Fahey (later "WOMBLIFE" years) and, to a lesser degree, Grubbs/O’Rourke from the Gastr Del Sol years. At times there are chunky rock riffs thrown in for good, or maybe not so good measure. At other times Kato Is able to make his Straocaster literally whine. As far as vocals, they are minimal and work more as an instrument that adds a layer versus a vehicle to express something in words. A varied record over all. The packaging is a folded piece of paper with black and white graphics. This differs from the usual Public Eyesore cardboard slipcase. I like it. - John Ruhter
(Improjazz no. 83) Dans leur Luv Rokambo, Nr. 32, Toru Yoneyama (g, toys, perc, voc) et Osamu Kato (g, voc, rapman) laissent tantôt presque tourner scies circulaires et larsens jusqu'à la saturation, borborygmes à l'appui, tantôt s'adonnent à un rock déjanté et bricolé (un lointain cousinage chadbournien?), répétitif, aux climat indécis et aux écalages amusants. Distrayant, mais encore?... - Guillaume Tarche
(Dead Angel no.48)Weird, cryptic snippets of sound that gradually turn into something occasionally musical before mutating into weirdness again. That seems to be the modus operandi for these sonic jokers. Armed with vocals (or so it claims on the cover -- i'm pretty sure they're in there somewhere), Stratocaster, and various odd toys and gadgets, they make mad sounds that defy categorization. One song, "cameroon," is filled with madly scratching guitar and tinnitus-inducing drones apparently designed to give you vertigo; "tremolo indicator" is indeed filled with warbling guitars, not to mention other peculiar sounds (including moments of disjointed percussion and much crabbing in Japanese). For a recording that lists percussion as one of the instruments, beats sure seem to be in short supply -- when they do appear they're abrupt, scattered, and seem to have almost nothing to do with anything that's playing. In fact, the entire thing has an aura of near-randomness that makes it impossible to even guess what might be coming next. There are some nice warped slide guitar sounds happening on "cosmic elegy," and "how dare u?" is punctuated by what sounds like a kazoo being tortured with a barbeque fork as percussion sort of "happens" and other noises hop up and down... you know, what this entire album sounds like most of all is a party of musicians playing musical chairs with various instruments. I detect the ghost of Sun Ra lurking about, ordering the participants to dance this mess around. Even for a PE release this is most decidedly out there... - RKF
(Dream no. 3) Recorded 1/4/2001 at studio Jive, Morioka Japan. Toru Yoneyama (guitar, toys, mobile, percussion, vocals) and Osamu Kato (guitar, keyboard, vocals). Primitive noise and seemingly random rumblings jitterings and metal crashing sounds, vocals that screech, ocassionally speak or oof and grunt. A nervous energy and bending hyperactivity that recalls the Reverend Eugene Chadbourne's similar wanderings upon the pathway. What at first seems like chaos becomes ordered, forms come into focus and are carefully employed in blueslike meanderings or subtle ambient texture. Insanely inventive, but quite musical if you give it the time to unfold. - George Parsons
(Music Magazine 5/02) CD-R about 44 minutes including 6 improvisations with guitar, percussion, electronics, and voice. At first impression LUV ROKAMBO reminds the usual categories about noise, blues, and pop, but may be more free from these sound regulations because of duo, their compact formation. They break the spell of the style and do response with minimal method bearing the curious rhythm and melody like music of an unexplored region or frontier. They make it nervous and can not be merely top-heavy but also lively. They're dead funny. - Kazuhiko Namekawa translated by Osam
(Komakino) Keep on riding the japanese wave, - then it's Toru Yoneyama & Osamu Kato's turn, aka Luv Rokambo, always on PE rec. Two cd's: the first is of jan 'o1, gorgeous production of free-form ambient, done of typewriters, toys, stratocaster under delay effects/loops, beaten or played with bottle neck, - then feedback, male vocals as lullaby, minimal percussion. Well, there's written They play a 'green-oroco-g' too, - but i don't have any idea what it is! Anyway, pure madness, or grey matter in decomposition. 6 tracks, about 46 minutes. To give you some coordinates, i'd cite Kim Gordon side project with ex DNA's drummer, Ikue Mori, - or else, imagine an ideal score for a movie, when the chief character finds him-self in a desert, delirious he loses consciousness, - his visions. Ok. Listen to Cosmic Elegy and You'll get it. - Paolo Miceli
(Ampersand Etcetera 2002_10) The title of this duo's album will become the group name later on – TY plays toys, percussion, mobile, green-oroco-g (!?) and vocals while OK is on stratocastor, rapman and more vocals: and it was recorded in one day in Morioka. There are two short concrete-y tracks (1 and 5) 'How are u?' and 'How dare you' the first drawing electro sounds from the guitar and some vocals, the second squeaky noise that could be air escaping from a balloon and a brief rhythm , loop. The other pieces are more extended improvisations. 'Cameroon' has all sorts of guitar effects (picking, noisy, feedback) with clicking, distorted tones, blowing, little pulsing loops creating a moving sound mass, a distorted scream and kazoo and strained vocals as well before a bjang conclusion. There is more restraint in 'Tremolo indicator' where a shaken guitar (pulsating) plays notes and strums to various noises and bangings that become a percussion. Some soft scatty vocals (hard to hear but they sound like english) then into a guitar solo over various toy noises, with some soft singing. Impressed by that track, 'Cosmic elegy' was even more so as a gentle guitar solo, with echoed slides, is accompanied by a vocal/chant, some more energetic guitar but creating a western, bluesy mood and style and sorta spacey. The final track is also well constructed a plucked and droney guitar builds, becomes percussive and more strident into big guitar noise, drops back to spacious picks before a series of big strums to create a finale. Freeform and improvised but with about enough structure to keep me interested. - Jeremy Keens
