July 18, 2018 — “Inhuman” by Oceanator

Elise Okusami (Oceanator)

If you only listen to one song today, make it “Inhuman” by Oceanator (2018, from the Lows EP).

Oceanator is the indie rock solo recording project of Brooklyn-based Elise Okusami. She’s been playing guitar since she was nine years old, and she’s played in bands for several years, but this is her pet project. The first Oceanator EP, simply called EP came out last year, and she followed it with Lows in April of this year. Her influences range from 80s synth pop to surf rock to folk rock to 90s alt-rock and grunge. On this record, I hear a lot of 90s indie rock influences, and I’m frequently reminded of Guided By Voices. Especially on today’s song.

This is another project that I had never heard of until I started my Hopscotch research. It’s a really good lineup this year, and while we don’t know the full schedule, we know that Oceanator is playing on Saturday night. She’s one of many on my short list of bands to see on the last night of the festival. My short list for that night includes Liz Phair on the main stage plus club shows by Grouper, Chad VanGaalen, Ought, Still Corners, and Oceanator. Plus a few others on the long list/”plan B” list. Of course there’s bound to be a conflict or two over the course of the weekend, but Grouper is the only one of that lot that would take precedence over Oceanator if such a conflict exists on Saturday.

While I haven’t spent a lot of time with this EP, I like the whole thing, and today’s song jumped out at me the most. This is that song.

“Inhuman” by Oceanator

It starts off with some gentle strumming and a bit of echo on the vocals. It builds a bit, slowly, and then there’s a pretty heavy shift at around 1:19 when everything crashes in pretty heavily. Up to then, it totally reminds me of GBV. It shifts back to “quiet” for a while, and then back to “loud”, but it doesn’t follow a predictable pattern. The second “quiet” part is a bit louder than the first, and the third “quiet” part has really muted drums. When the chorus comes back around again for the third “loud” part, it’s significantly louder and much more intense, with many more layers than before. From 3:42 all the way to the end, it’s sheer, beautiful noise. Controlled chaos. Of course it comes to an almost full stop right there at the very end, and that’s another thing that makes this amazing.

Oceanator is on Tiny Engines Records along with Illuminati Hotties, which is an amazing solo recording project with what is either the dumbest name or a clever name. That label also features Spirit of the Beehive, who will be playing Hopscotch on Friday, the middle night of the festival.

You can buy Lows via Bandcamp here. While you’re at it, support the label by buying the latest record by The Spirit of the Beehive here, and the amazing debut record by illuminati hotties here.

For details about this year’s Hopscotch lineup, check here. For ticket options, go here.