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Yowie — Taking Umbrage
(Skin Graft GR165, 2025, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2026-05-14

Taking Umbrage Cover art

Yowie’s follow-up to Synchromysticism is the equally baffling and impressive Taking Umbrage. Two of the tracks here (“Museum Fatigue” and “Throckmorton”) made their debut in live form on the split with Pili Coït, and they’re joined by five more tracks of relentlessly complex math-punk. These are tunes you will never find yourself humming, and even bobbing your head with the beat can be a challenge, as Yowie’s concept of “groove” is very different from what anyone else has (except the related band Terms, I suppose). After listening to, studying, and playing music of many different kinds for nearly all my life, I have to admit being almost totally baffled by Yowie. The normal rules just don’t apply. And it’s not like they’re even venturing into microtonality or anything of that nature, though there are a lot of unconventional sounds incorporated into the guitar parts. It would be fascinating to see some of this transcribed. But as strange and unconventional as it is, I really enjoy listening to Taking Umbrage. It’s a near-constant succession of smile-inducing, head-shaking moments. I get the same feeling from listening to Koenjihyakkei and Ruins (or most of the music that involves Tatsuya Yoshida), for what it’s worth. The group consists of founding member Shawn “Defenestrator” O'Connor on drums and two guitarists, Daniel Ephraim Kennedy and Jack “Oakie Doke” Tickner, and the turnover in membership has not resulted in any change in style, indicating the key role the drummer plays in the music (another similarity to Yoshida’s music). In any case, if you like music that is built on tightly controlled chaos and unconventional structures, this is a great place to get into one of the foremost American purveyors of ridiculous complexity outside the metal genre.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Yowie

More info
http://yowie.bandcamp.com/album/taking-umbrage

 

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