Why?
Oaklandazulasylum

Why?, also known as Yoni Wolf, already in cLOUDDEAD alongside Odd Nosdam and Doseone, had demonstrated an exceptional compositional ability and a strong inclination for experimentation, making extensive use of samples, drum machines, bleeps, and anything else modern technology offers. On the other hand, he does not shy away from using real instruments and plays guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, and drums. After an initial experience with WHY?, a quartet he led, (“The Split EP”, always released by the Californian Anticon two years earlier), in 2003 he thought the time was ripe for a new endeavor, this time a full-length.

Thus was born “Oaklandazulasylum”, which we can define as the result of the sum of two vectors representing his past experiences, a fusion of the old and the new, the classic and the modern, the instrumental and the digital.
Cataloging the work is an arduous if not impossible task, as it is a real mix of genres: Why? skillfully moves between hip-hop, electronics, indie-pop, ambient, folk, chill out, funk, soul; yet instead of a cacophonous, strident, and unlistenable mess, it all turns out to be harmonious, melodic, and potentially listenable by anyone.
At times, it is completely perplexing, and just when you might expect the entry of the drums on guitar and horns, they disappear, and instead, glitch and synth appear out of nowhere, modulating the evolution of the song in a direction opposite to expectations (“Ferriswheel”).

Much like a roller coaster, there are the slow initial climbs, the rapid descents, the ups and downs interspersed with curves exerting a centrifugal force that takes your breath away; similarly, in the album, we find slow and melancholic guitar arpeggios, fast beats, and multi-layer synth loops (“Cold Lunch - Albert Brown Mortuary Dumpster Dive Remix”), moments of hilarity, carefree ones (“Dream On Cortelyon” or “Women Eye, No”), others elegiac, somber, lamenting (like the lament of “Weak Moon”).
The best episodes of the ride are naturally the ascending/descending curves that defy the laws of gravity, here excellently represented by the splendid “Early Whitney” and “Seventeen”.
After 37:34 minutes, the roller coaster carts conclude the mad ride on the notes of the dreamy “Ape in Cage with Wire Cutters”, which ends a minute before the intended 4:09, delivering to us that necessary silence to rearrange our thoughts.

“Oaklandazulasylum” is a strange album, dissonant for some, genius for others.
The interpretation of music according to Why? is not easy to decode, but it could be an enticing opportunity to break out of genre molds.

Try to hop on this surprising roller coaster of sounds that will leave you pleasantly stunned.