“For a musical group to come along like this is very rare — a swirling double helix of truth and love-male and female-earth wind and fire. When they play, I feel it very deep in my DNA and it registers — we are all the same.” – Jim James
Leaving a smartphone behind for the day or taking a week-long social media hiatus can be excruciating, akin to getting dumped off in the wilderness or locked in a sensory deprivation chamber. For L.A. psychedelic dream pop five-piece Amo Amo, abandoning cell phones catalyzed the creation of a spiritually-attuned and genuine self-titled debut full length album, produced by My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, who took the band out into California’s Wine Country for a month with no cell reception to record their 8-song debut.
Amo Amo emerged with an introductory work of euphoric reggae-inflected psych pop ready-made for the most ecstatic festival experiences and optimized for maximum streams on the chillest playlists, marrying lyrical mantras centered on the radically simple message of oneness and love with funky, breezy, danceable grooves.
Just as practitioners of transcendental meditation use mantras to focus, (among them James, since first participating in a benefit for the David Lynch Foundation in 2009,) Amo Amo’s use of repetitive lyrics seems intended to penetrate the whole being, to pull the participant into a deeper state of consciousness.
Amo Amo’s origin story involves a psychic premonition promising to usher in a revelation in sound, according to the press release. They might not yet exactly deliver on that ambitious goal, but if not quite a revelation, then at least an extremely charming preamble, kicking their discography off with their radical embrace of love as a foundational premise. Lead guitarist Omar Velasco told Buzzbands L.A., “Amo means love and we mean it. The sound evolves on an unspoken, instinctual/psychic soul level, melodically, and the lyrics evolve according to our awareness, experiences and the work we do.”
After forming during an impromptu jam session at James’ studio one night in 2017, James took the five – Femme on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Velasco on lead guitar and also lead vocals, Shane McKillop (of Gardens & Villa) on bass, Alex Siegel on keys and Justin Flint on drums – on a month-long recording getaway, holing up in an old historic house in Foxen Canyon and recording the album.
James’ style as a producer, developed over many years and multiple projects, including producing an album for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, is to emphasize the importance of the beat and inspiring movement as well as encouraging the band’s natural strengths, which in this case meant prioritizing playing freely and having fun while recording the tracks, which were mostly captured live.
In this setting, the band could focus on the IRL connections in front of them – to one another, the music, their own interior life and collective creativity. They spent downtime hiking, drinking, smoking and making up silly songs around the campfire. The band hosted a listening party that apparently began very politely and devolved into a dance party over its course. This seems to be the perpetual call to action for Amo Amo: be present, vibe with one another, dance.
Within Amo Amo’s album, mastered by Bob Ludwig (Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Ocean), you can hear some of the members’ claimed influences like Stevie Wonder and George Harrison in addition to borrowing touchstones from the reggae inflection of Bob Marley, the blissed out jams of The Grateful Dead and the stacked female-male vocal harmonies of groups like Dirty Projectors.
Standout single “Closer To You,” which James calls “one of my all time fave pieces of music i have ever been involved in”, encourages understanding, forgiveness and reconciliation in an effort to embrace closeness – and although it sounds like we’re talking about connectedness and oneness with another person, we’re also talking about oneness with nature, with everything. The music video ends with Femme stripping and diving into the surf, which Velasco identified to Popdust as “a joyful return to an organic identity as vast as the ocean.” An enchanting, vibrant and irresistible love song to the entire universe, it feels like a late night torch-lit beach soiree, with gorgeous reverbed 60’s pop harmonies, a reggae groove with thick playful bass, and Femme’s blazing and steady vocals.
Another standout track, “When I Look at You,” is a celebration of gazing at a beloved someone worshipfully; in the band’s words, “I am in rapture looking at you. I want to tell you that the sight of you inspires and delights me. Is this okay with you?’” Slinky and slick, “When I Look At You” features two-part mixed-gender vocals drifting in and out of harmonies and unisons, flitting above a mesmerizing groove.
“When We’re Gone” is a reminder of our collective mortality and the importance of embracing each moment that we have, while “Antidote,” the final single off the album, is about connecting body and mind through movement. Being too much inside your own head can best be addressed by getting in touch with and convincing your body to get up and move, pulling you down to earth “instead of in the celestial realm or wherever your mind can wander when you’re sitting inside for too long,” Femme told Billboard. Velasco wrote the lyrics, inspiring Femme’s contribution of the song’s smooth, fluid groove and melody.
With their self-titled debut, Amo Amo seem to be attempting to set up a transcendent experience for a generation of connection-hungry festival-goers in a digitally-filtered FOMO-wracked culture. They’ve engineered the soundtrack to our impending oneness, in which we are all components of an interconnected rhythmically writhing ecosystem inhaling the same ganja haze. In their intoxicating presence, we all might forget about our phones and transcend to the beat together.
As a recording, the impact is relegated to a pleasant serotonin bump, the irrepressible inclination to bob your head, a burst of inspiration while tackling a snarly to-do list or, at the very least, a gentle nudge toward the cash register at H&M. It could easily tend toward background music, but in the right frame of mind Amo Amo could pull the listener deeper and deeper into its luscious mantras until one experiences a transcendent connectedness to all.
Photo credit: Robbie Jeffers
