Omebi Velouria makes music with its own built-in history.  It is the history of man. The history of modern technology.  Far from sounding dated, the music she creates combines a passion for the past with a tilted vision of what the modernism promises to deliver. As one half of Austin based future primitives Os Ovni, she already has quite a body of work. Her new untitled solo LP for Phantasma Disques showcases the fact that she is far from just a feminine sidekick in the new electroclash. She is a woman of synth and substance.

As a Daughter of Derbyshire (Electronic composer Delia, for those unawares) the music Omebi makes is art brut concrete. Electronic freakbeat in the vein of her hero[ine]s White Noise and San Francisco street perfromer Space Lady. The fact that Phantasma’s elusive Cosmotropia de Xam gave her complete freedom is a testament to her talents; as de Xam is notorious for bending contributing artists wills and forcing them into a mold he created with the early releases of Mater Suspiria Vision and Pwin Tweaks. There is no ghost drone here though… and definitely none of that dirty witchy word house. Instead, listeners are treated to pure analog programming, somewhere between the genius of  early Moog experimentation and the cohesive composition of Broadcast. It is easy to lose oneself in the Dreamscape, with its slow hum and minimal vintage drum programs. This is archaeological music of the future and although it is rooted in music composed more than 30 years ago, it seems as futuristic as Woody Allen’s Sleeper, in the same grainy 70’s celluloid style.

A San Francisco transplanted in the hipster heart of the TX, Omebi strays from cool factor with a feather boa and tons of sequins and glitter. Just like the Outsider Art on the cover of her new CD, she lacks the pretension that is often associated with the new breed of underground electronics. This is purely modular, in a way that only the nerdiest students of library music can understand. Even a well placed cover of David Lynch’s ubiquitous “Lady in the Radiator” song, which has been covered by the likes of Bauhaus and the Pixies, can’t disguise the fact that Omebi is incapable of making music for anyone but herself. And that is just the way that it’s supposed to be.

- Nattymari