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KÍLA & OKI
Kíla & Oki Kíla Records ***

From the frozen land of Japan's Hokkaido island, Oki brings a surprisingly languid, south seas-filtered rhythm to the music of Kíla. For their part, Kíla bring their particular blend of contemporary Irish language rap-infused social commentary, paired with layered arrangements and an undoubted world music sensibility. The two coalesce rather than collide in this, their debut collaboration, where the Japanese-accented subtlety of Oki's "Ainu" music serves to colour and shade with a typically oriental finesse. In some ways, Oki is the ideal counterpoint to Kíla's characteristically primary colours: his scene-setting opener of Topattumi instantly lowers the pulse, and Ororo Raha (Mokoro Mokoro) revels in the stripping bare of the melody lines. Occasionally though, Rónán Ó Snodaigh's wailing vocals grate with their insistence on hypnotic rhyme over reason. www.kila.ie Siobhán Long