Artist: Okapi

Artist: Okapi

Links: https://www.facebook.com/okapiband

http://okapiband.bandcamp.com/

I personally view Okapi through the lens of R.E.M.'s “Low” (which, along with “Country Feedback,” is one of the better deep cuts from the Athenian alt-rockers' mainstream days). Okapi is partially to blame. They got me to thinking about “Low” with their pulsing bass introduction to “Powder” (even though it's melodically closer to Nirvana/the Meat Puppets' “Lake of Fire”). But it was not until repeated listens did I remember the R.E.M.-Okapi connection. Because it was then that I got my hands on the lyrics.

Despite the fact that “Low” was one of my five-star iTunes songs for years [“what is an 'iTunes'?”], I just now realized I have no idea what the lyrics mean: “I've been laughing / Fast and slow / Moving in a still frame / Howling at the moon.” And while they likely make perfect sense to the song's narrator, they remain largely impenetrable to me. So it is with Okapi's lyrics. And yet, like “Low,” it's the music that sucks you in. To the point you love it. Even before you know what it means.

Ah, the music. Starting with “Virgin Lips,” which recalls the quiet instrumental excellence of Tim Hecker, we exist within Okapi's darkened landscapes for five minutes at a time, hearing true organic orchestration using only bass, drums, and cello. That's right: Nary a six-string guitar in sight. Whether crawling up the “Water Spout” (like the song's narrator) or making a song move like Me'Shell Ndegeocello/Van Morrison did for “Wild Night” (“Partisan You”), the bass is finally a star. Meanwhile, the kit/hand percussion rolls, clicks, and clacks, even providing the color while the bass supplies the time-keeping groove; and the cello alternates between nuanced experimentation and pure emotion.

There's a tiny obstacle that keeps us from truly spacing out to this fascinating instrumentation, and that's the lyrical density (lots of words + lots of meaning-per-word). This, along with a relatively naked vocal (appropriately alt-rock in character, e.g. A Perfect Circle/Tool, Incubus, and Placebo), has us hoping for future additions of vocal layers, nonlexical vocables (oohs/ahs/etc.), and a halved word count, which would serve to focus our attention on the more accessible of the poetry: “My halo has been lifted and carried away” (Virgin Lips); “We’ll give you to the setting sun” (Upon the Clearing); “Dead to a sense of relief” (Water Spout); “As my colors change....I watch your mold grow” (Partisan You); “I would commit a thousand sins....Journeying to the center” (Powder). (After all, even R.E.M.'s “Low” contained an easily understood hook – “I skipped the part about love / It seems so silly/shallow and low.”) Anything to facilitate our deep dive into Okapi's lovely sonics.

In their capacity as alt-rock's elder statesmen, R.E.M. would surely be proud. There's a first-rate alternative to rock 'n' roll bands who've grown tired of the genre, but continue to play it all the same. And its name is Okapi.

*** The author of this review, Ryan Rogers, plays the def for the following band: http://youtu.be/tMS73-1kCr8