Music
Press
Talking Lynndie England may be one of the first songs to tackle the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. It's certainly the first to do so while sounding like Christopher Cross. The sharp-looking Danish five-piece's debut album is an electro-pop guerrilla raid on the '70s and '80s. Despite some horrible production that exhumes memories of Go West, their frenzied pillaging is entertaining, notably on Am I Right?, wherin Sigue Sigue Sputnik meet the Buzzcocks. Touting a ballistic spin on everything from Supertramp to Fashion-era Bowie, Oh No Ono are clunky when they miss but contagious when they hit. - Q
Danes Oh No Ono have a song called ‘Victim Of The Modern Age’ in which they repeatedly declare “Oh na na na na na/We are Oh No Ono”. Our first thoughts… oh no, mainland Europe’s lifted the ban on the export of turkeys. But, while the Aalborg fivesome’s penchant for nonsensical repetition can be grating it can also be applauded. Why? Mainly because ‘Yes’ is a ridiculous record and it’s proud of it. It all starts with a Bellamy-style piano concerto. Hedonistic Atari-pop romper ‘The Shock Of The Real’ follows, where singer Malthe Fischer wails like he’s been possessed. And if that wasn’t enough, few bands will manage to cram Devo, Sparks, Talking Heads, Prince, Adam And The Ants and Orville The Duck into one song as ‘Keeping Warm In Cold Country’ does. A Marmite scenario for sure. We’re irritated; but somehow still dancing. - NME
Oh No Ono, who presumably took their name from the audience's reaction when John Lennon pitched up onstage at The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus, are five men from Denmark who sound like Sparks on speed. Their combination of electronically assisted helium falsetto and skittish synth melodies also invokes the jouissance of Tin Tin's "Kiss Me", the saucy squelch of Prince circa 'Dirty Mind' and the E-numbers exuberance of Bis. When they stop for a second and give the hyper-hyper energy a breather, as they do on "Sunshine and Rain At Once", they sound as magical as a childhood Christmas. Yes, indeed. - THE INDEPENDENT
o mad and Muse-like is this debut album from the Danish five-piece that, having accepted its implicit command to dance like a loon, you may well need to lie down in a dark room to recover. Oh No Ono chuck everything at Yes’s 11 tracks, with an abandon that is infectious if exhausting, and with falsetto vocals (from Malthe Fischer) that seem set to divide opinion. The opening triptych of Strawberry Festival’s Matt Bellamy-style pianistic grandstanding, Shock of the Real and Keeping Warm in Cold Country mash up Buggles, Devo, Bowie and Thomas Dolby to exhilarating effect. Later, a lurking Huey Lewis indebtedness asserts itself, but by then you may already be reclining in silence. - TIMES ONLINE
Hotly tipped Danish quintet Oh No Ono certainly deserve all the hot tippage on the basis of their debut release, "Yes." It is an album full of musical nuggets, inspired by a host of pop masters from time past. Atmospheric opener "The Strawberry Festival" recalls the more conceptual songs of 10CC or ELO before jumping straight into the fantastic "The Shock Of The Real" - a song full of "Fashion" era David Bowie. Malthe Fisher's unique falsetto vocal gives all the songs an exclusive indentity, which will probably lose the band a few admirers, but for many it will be simply perfect. Influenced as much by The Beatles and The Beach Boys as by Duran Duran, Talking Heads and Gary Numan, Oh No Ono have produced an album of original takes on the traditional indie format. There's enough electro to keep the Hoxton Heroes happy and enough pure pop for an easy but rewarding listen. - CLASH
Oh No Ono “The Wave Ballet”
The singer — I’m not sure of their gender! — sounds rather like Geddy Lee, and the band makes the Arcade Fire sound like a very restrained duo. The song starts with a choral section, and builds to an arena ballad of symphonic majesty. Just so you know, that’s what you’re in for here. Oh No Ono may have a silly name, but they are not fucking around, and as over-the-top as this gets, the emotion and drama of the piece is never tainted by either self-serious pomposity or self-conscious irony. Hugeness does not seem to be the goal it and of itself, but simply what the song must be to properly communicate its feeling. As ornate as the arrangement may be, the most beautiful part of the song is the chorus, which washes over like cool waves, a melodic turn of nearly child-like simplicity in the middle of this epic piece. - FLUXBLOG
Can shoegaze be really poppy? I mean, like fuzzy/wandering, but really catchy at the same time. I guess as long as you can take LSD and heroin at the same time, the combination can exist. Oh No Ono have managed to combine the delicate intricacy of so many pop groups with the droney power of the fun side of shoegaze. Sounds like a mess, but it really isn’t. In fact, it sounds like they’ve got it together more than most of us. Eggs is a fantastic record and this isn’t even close to being the only good song on there — the whole thing is a gem. - YOU AIN'T NO PICASSO
You may not have heard of Danish psych-indie-poppers Oh No Ono, but with the viewing of this video, we hope that's about to change. If you have, then watch it, it's good! The video is for their current single 'Swim', which is taken from their debut record, to be released early next year on The Leaf Label.
The clip was directed by fellow Dane Adam Hashemi, and is quite, quite unsettling. It's always the case that you think something dastardly is going to happen, until it eventually does...and even then you think things'll inevitably get worse. It's also a little bit on the wrong side of sexual, but it's easy to understand why. You'll have to watch it to truly comprehend. The song's not bad, either, harnessing high-pitched vocals among a plethora of other lovely instruments, arranged delightfully.
OK, so the video might be a little old, but better late than never AND the single came out this week, so...it's relevant...and "a thing of beauty is a joy forever, its loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingness, but still will keep", as some wise man said.
Director Hashemi said:
"The video is loosely based on my very first childhood experience, when I was three. I witnessed a nurse die of a heart attack. However, I used that idea in a different context. It's about your first sexual experience as a child, and the shame that comes with it. Also, I set out to explore the subject of sex related to death, and how they, for unknown reasons, seem to go hand in hand."
- DROWNED IN SOUND
Oh No Ono's leisure hours must be spent deconstructing the Chic-derived guitar flurries of Girls on Film-era Duran Duran and the locked-groove synth bass essential to funky whiteboy new wavers. That's after they've tidied up their Buggles, Plastics and Waitresses records. For this Danish five-piece, it's 1982 all over again. Oh No Ono's mission is as eccentic as it is hilariously arch. Recent single The Shock of the Real is typical - with the lilt of Bowie's version of China Girl and Prince-styled upper register singing, it could still easily be Duran's doppelganger follow-up to The Reflex. Although a somewhat boxy and flat production dents their vitality. Oh No Ono are prevented from Blue Zoo or - God forbid - Kajagoogoo revivalists by sheer pep and an irony-free delivery that irresistibly sweeps you along. - MOJO
Discography
Eggs (LP / Friendly Fire Recordings, Leaf / 2010 - Morningside /2009)
Yes (LP / Morningside / 2006)
Now You Know Oh No Ono (EP / Morningside / 2005)
Photos
Bio
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.
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