OHAMA Schallplatten & CDs

Review: "Hello. My name is Ohama, and I live on a potato farm in Western Canada" went the memorably deadpan opening to "The Drum", Ohama's contribution to Minimal Wave Tapes Vol 2 earlier this year, and it's also the opening track on this full length exploration of the Canadian producer's work from Minimal Wave. What's most striking about The Potato Farm Tapes however is the sense of paranoia and detachment that Ohama clearly felt recording these tracks from his studio basement beneath his parents' potato farm in Rainier, Alberta, during the latter stages of The Cold War. Intriguingly, Ohama's lyrics are heavily focused on technophobia and the subversive power of television and mass media which stands in stark contrast to the techno centric nature - with keyboards, drum machines, vocoders and analogue reel tape all utilised to create complex productions that blended found sounds with audio lifted from TV. Some of Ohama's earliest recordings from his first cassette only release Midnite News form the basis of The Potato Farm Tapes along with rare tracks that previously appeared on compilations. Furthermore, the label have printed a must read interview between Ohama and Brandon Hocura on the inner sleeve that offers some brilliant insight into this collection.