Mei Ohara

Ohara's driving industrial beats with their booming low-end and the darkly prismatic array of synth sounds make for an eerie dystopian backdrop that is both chilling and seductive. Her high-soaring silvery soprano, though, is what carries the tunes, cutting through the densely-packed steam-powered productions with its cathedral-sized echo, haunting vibrato, and sky-high range. The cherry on the top of this EP, however, is the high-pitched wail of her violin that's so wet with psychedelic effects, it must be tripping hard on brown acid. She may be classically trained, but her space-age fiddle warbling is so far from classical it's not even in the same galaxy, let alone ballpark. More Hendrix than Haydn. Man, I could listen to this for hours. Probably will, too. - The Noise - Boston

“Antimatter Man” doesn’t so much start as it boots up. And it’s some extreme, futuristic technology that can seem at times very robotic and at other times almost more human than you, man. We can credit this to Ohara’s neo-futuro-classical essence, as soulful string bowing-meet digitized sound somewhere in the stratosphere of your head and then do all sorts of intricate and possibly naughty things together quite gracefully in the air.

The vocal adds yet another dimension to the arrangement, twisting and turning in the air like something that is both weightless as it is extremely potent. The melody takes several delicious twists and turns along the way but it still coasts on the occasional cloud when the mood is right.

The pervasive hook in this track is almost surprising – it’s sort of like special effects in a movie: when they are done well, you don’t even realize that they were effects until later. The motif, which starts at the bottom of the scale and winds up twiddling somewhere toward the V/V# stays in the mind’s ear after the end of the song, and it’s almost like “Where did that come from?” and then you realize it. But it goes without saying that antimatter is tricky stuff, so this just must be how it works. - CD on Songs

Mei Ohara’s January EP Antimatter is a complex thing. The classically-trained violinist takes her estimable chops and runs them through synthesized electronic layers, creating a depth of sound and sharpness in production that is a welcome respite from this era of messy bedroom recordings. She and her electronic violin, Vindice, take center stage tonight in Cambridge on a bill with equally experimental duo Wave///Length and DJ Rory Stark. - Boston Phoenix

Recently we learned of Boston area violinist MEI OHARA. She absolutely rips on the electric violin and has a 6 song demo on bandcamp that is full of haunting ballads backed with electronic drums and sounds. “Comet Eyes” is where she really lets loose on the violin, conjuring up some wailing Middle Eastern flavored melody. Check out her tunes and find out when she’s playing near you. - Boston Hassle