Afrirampo are like a firecracker of energy and sound. From the opening shouts of “Uchira Wo Ko Sastemiro”, a fourty second tapping and shouting song you know you’re in for something different.
Title and band track “Afrirampo” sets the energy to maxmium as the production sounds like everythings been done in a garage and recorded on some cheap £5 tape recorder. It sounds absolutely awful, but then that’s part of its charm. A bit like how The Go Team’s music is poorly produced in many ways, this has the same garage band throw it together and we’ll see charm. The song itself is fantastic and a great screaming anthem of silliness.
“Oni-Pika Heart” is equally as nuts but more of a chugger track but you will be struggling to make out anything over the funky guitars and squeals from our ladies! “DoDoDoDo” does exactly what it says on the tin, there’s no words at all but when the drums roll at the end of each riff they shout “DoDoDoDooooo”. Just wait, you’ll be doing it to! It’s like a party crashdown. “Kawaii Watashi” is just a random jamming session with no real rhyme or reason at all!
“Akan Konomama Kaesanai” has an excellent guitar/superspy motif but the vocals are so distorted and bled out it sounds like an awful bootleg gone bad! Uncontrolled chaos. Utterly bonkers. Love it! “Natsu Ga Kita” is the most barmy yet as a simple guitar motif plays over and over as the girls chat, talk, laugh and scream for five minutes. It is extremely trippy – in a good way! The final track is a 16 minute epic “Yuki Chan” which is actually as normal as this album actually gets. It reminds me of early Hole in the beginning before it breaks off into its own tune and screaches. It’s like they smashed up the instuments with the recorders still running like a real rock gig!
Afrirampo is certainly not for everyone. The production is worse than most audience recorded bootlegs but if you’re focusing on that your missing the point. Its pure unprocessed emotion and freak out bliss. To hold this together for an album of complete nuttiness and still have people of a high speeding round like they’ve been on a drip of Red Bull since birth is a top notch effort. Just one more thing…. “aaaarghhhhhhh!!!”