Afrirampo
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is a band from
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
, Japan. The band was active from 2002 to 2010 and announced a reform in 2016. The members are Oni (guitar, vocals) and Pikachu (drums, vocals). Afrirampo has toured with
Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...
and Lightning Bolt, played with
Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...
collaborated with Acid Mothers Temple and released several CDs on various labels.


Musical style

Afrirampo's music often features call and response vocals, catchy distorted pop melodies, looping fret noise, droning feedback, guttural barks and impromptu squealing. Their early albums featured a sound that could be described as noise-punk, albeit with surprisingly melodic vocal parts, along with some longer, less melodic improvised jam pieces. Their later albums, especially Suuto Breakor and We Are Uchu No Ko, featured a much more expansive sound, sometimes with very long songs and quieter, more ethereal passages. The band's later albums featured noticeable elements of African music, with a tribal percussive sound and call-and-response vocals. This derived in part from a 2004 stay with
pygmy In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...
tribes in
Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
documented on their 2006 album ''Baka Ga Kita''.


History

After playing in several bands throughout their teens, Oni with an instrumental trio called Hankoki and Pikachu with a psychedelic quartet of girls called Z, the pair started Afrirampo in the spring of 2002 at the ages of 18 and 19. The band started out using a pair of Casio synthesizers before adopting the guitar/drum format that they became known for. The period of 2002-2005 saw Afrirampo's visibility within the ranks of contemporary
noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...
increasing in a manner that Matthew Murphy of ''
Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...
'' described as "meteoric". This might be attributed to their powerful stage presence, and hyper-energized live performances which generated considerable interest within the alternative music press. The duo put out a few independent releases in their in the 2002–2004 period, notably the album ''A''. During the same period of time, they played extensively in Japan, played their first shows in the US, toured Europe with
Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...
and spent some time in Cameroon with the Baka pygmy tribe. In 2005, they had a particularly productive year, including their major-label Japanese debut ''Urusa in Japan,'' the album ''Kore Ga Mayaku Da'' on the New Yorked-based Tzadik (record label), and a collaboration with Acid Mothers Temple entitled '' We Are Acid Mothers Afrirampo!'' In the same year, they performed at All Tomorrow's Parties, the avant-garde music festival curated by Vincent Gallo, and joined performance artist
Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...
on stage for her closing piece. 2006 saw the release of their album ''Baka Ga Kita'', which was recorded during the 2004 Cameroon visit. This album consisted mostly of a cappella chants recorded by Afrirampo with members of the Baka tribe, and features no electric guitar. In early 2007, they canceled some shows and took a break for several months, due to Oni's pregnancy. Later that year, they released '' Suuto Breakor'', which showed their style becoming more complex, melodic and ethereal, with more noticeable African influences than their other electric releases, although the music still contained healthy doses of noise. The band did not release any more albums for the rest of the decade, although they did continue to play live extensively, both inside and outside of Japan. In 2010, they released their final studio album to date, the double album ''We Are Uchu No Ko''. While this release saw a return to the band's original noise-punk on some songs, it also showcased the band's growing musical complexity and influenced of psychedelia and world music. In June 2010, Afrirampo announced that they would be disbanding after their final show in Osaka on June 26. However, their homepage stated in Japanese that if the "Mother of Heaven" called upon them to play together again, they would play. In the English version, they stated "If our mother of monster say 'PLAY!PLAY!together!!', then we will play," indicating that the door was open for future reunions. After breaking up, Afrirampo did a special "Bye-bye Matsuri" performance on July 26, 2010, a month after their supposed final show, in which members of the Osaka underground music scene appeared with them onstage. In 2011, they released a live CD/DVD entitled ''Never Ending Afrirampo'', which consists of material from the last official performance on June 26, 2010, as well as some clips from the "Bye-bye Matsuri" performance on July 26, 2010. During their hiatus, the band also maintained their website and appeared in each other's solo shows. It was announced on their official website that the band were reforming in March 2016 after six years of hiatus to embark on a reunion tour in Japan. Since then, they have continued to play live in Japan and abroad and have introduced new songs to their sets. In August 2018, they announced their first studio album since 2010, to be entitled ''Afriverse''. The album was released on September 18, 2018.


Discography


References


External links


Afrirampo Feature on Dusted Magazine

KoreGaMayakuDa Album Review on Pitchfork

Nippop Profile , Afrirampo

Acid Mothers Temple

Afrirampo live recording (Ladyfest Brighton, November 2005)
{{Authority control All-female punk bands Female musical duos Japanese musical duos Japanese alternative rock groups Japanese punk rock groups Ki/oon Music artists Musical groups from Osaka Rock music duos Tzadik Records artists