Review Summary: Take care in your dreaming
One of the most exciting and enduring releases of 2021, Otay:onii’s
Ming Ming was a forward-thinking work that combined industrial, Chinese folk, glitch and just the bare minimum of pop sensibilities into a spellbinding fever dream of unease and liminal suspense. It was the kind of record that opened cobwebbed doors aplenty, yet made its every move so definitively that the thought of a follow-up never even crossed my mind. Shock of all horrors, Otay:onii has been so good as to furnish one regardless, and so we are now treated to her timely new album
Dream Hacker. In many ways, it’s a perfect successor to
Ming Ming, paring back its predecessor’s most challenging elements and streamlining its haunting overtones into song structures that, if a little more conventional, have a good chance of presenting the same atmosphere to a wider audience.
However,
Dream Hacker approaches liminal space from a very different trajectory: rather than embracing an ever-changing hyperpresent and shedding its skin in a near-continuous sequence of recent pasts as per
Ming Ming, it unfolds more languorously, blurring the passing of time entirely. Its songs chew over eerie refrains; its percussive clatter is played for immersion rather than disruption; industrial harshness is largely substituted for an anaesthetic set of (unless my ears deceive me) analog synthesisers. Singles “Overlap 重疊” and “W.C. 公共廁所” mull over mausoleum-eyeliner chord progressions as though every iteration of each motif nudges their claws a little deeper into themselves. The upshot is mesmerising and beautifully nauseous, seeping across the whole record in a numbing, cloying effect that draws special attention to the rare moment that does jolt the listener off the edge of their seat. One such point comes in the enjoyable, if skittish, midway cut “Two Rocks A Bird 二石一鳥” with its shot-in-the-arm energy rush, but the real takeaway is the slowburning “Ritualware 法器”, the only track here that makes a point of kicking into gear with the same abrupt force that made such headway on
Ming Ming’s highlights. The violence with which this song snaps out of its own reverie only to gradually drift back into it at a higher intensity is a deliciously brash pacing decision; having spent so much of this record indulging the listener with everything palettable about her sound, it’s something of a relief to feel Otay:onii pull the carpet away so sharply.
Atmosphere and pacing aside, the central attraction here is Otay:onii’s inimitable voice. She sounds as commanding as ever, though she also foregrounds a vulnerable edge more prominently as per the opener “You Do 是* / Rub 摩擦”. Her range and tone are impressive throughout the album, whether focusing on ethereal crooning (“Overlap 重疊”), macabre wails (“Light Burst 光裂”) or gravelly brimstone (“Ritualware 法器”). Her most evocative performance and perhaps the calling card for everything so compelling about this record doesn’t come until the closer “Good Fool 愚美人”. This track boasts the most intricate production and composition of the record: its matrix of offset layers of chimes and syncopated beats forms a perfect backdrop for the hair-raising heights Otay:onii’s vocal lines hit from centre stage, while the lacuna of empty space she drops like a bomb crater into the song’s centre is twice as anxiety-inducing for its lack of preceding explosion. Its strength as a closer is drawn in part from the likelihood of its leaving its audience craving more - but more
what, exactly? Despite its straightforward presentation and consistency of tone,
Dream Hacker is a deceptively difficult record to read. We yearn with all our available willpower not to wake up from the most blissful dreams, yet in our worst nightmares, the strength to consciously do so often lies out of reach; this album draws in equal measure from the fuzzy reverie of the former and the paralytic dread of the latter. The attraction is obvious, the gratification less so. Would a little more shape, a little more contour for the Individual Moment have compromised things? I doubt it somewhat. Otay:onii fleshes out a softer palette in fine style here, but, contrary to
Ming Ming, I now find myself actively imagining what her next move might be. Take care, restless dreamers.
