Photo: Sigga Ella
Oyama is both a city in Japan and a word meaning mountain. It is also the name of a really cool band from Reykjavík. The Icelandic quintet capture their Nordic heritage through their dark sound, and they embrace the Japanese references in their name by decorating their Facebook cover photo with Japanese sign language and a bunch of cats. They have been known to find inspiration for tracks such as ‘The Cat Has Thirst’ through their conspicuous love for the domestic feline. Their newest single, however, is called ‘Handsome Devil’ and it is a song about the quite spacey, existential process of being in foreign, incomprehensible surroundings and trying to make sense of it all.
Their brand new five-minute track is an atmospheric voyage of discovery through their mystical, evocative universe of sound. Their solid yet dreamy style is heavily shoegaze-permeated, but still manages to avoid getting too dense by adding airy, floating vocals to balance out the slightly somnolent vibe. ‘Handsome Devil’ is filled with varying guitar pedal effects just as the band’s last album Coolboy It is nothing short of a musical space expedition filled with dynamic suspense to keep you hooked.
Oyama is signed by the Icelandic record label 12 Tónar and the Japanese Imperial Records. Time will tell whether ‘Handsome Devil’ is a preview of a future release, but in the meantime, you can fill out the waiting time by listening to their stellar latest song below:
