Hometown: Los Angeles.
The lineup: Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, Left Brain, Hodgy Beats, Frank Ocean, Jasper the Dolphin, Mike G, Taco, The Super 3 and Syd tha Kyd.
The background: Unlike yesterday's new band Tribes, who left us puzzled by the amount of hype they've received, we can quite understand why today's lot have gained so much attention. Even if you don't like them – and it would be easy to be repelled by an outfit who rap about rape and are obsessed with swastikas and serial killers – it would be hard to dispute that they are interesting. OFWGKTA are a 11-strong collective of teenage Los Angelinos with their own allotted roles, Public Enemy-style – a musician-cum-minister of information, a producer, a visual artist, and so on – who are exploring the darker recesses of the human condition and spewing out what they find without too much of a filter-system in place. "It's the first shit that comes to our heads, seriously," says main man Tyler the Creator. "I'm interested in serial killers' minds and shit, so I rap about it at the moment. Who the fuck knows, next week I can be rapping about oatmeal if that's what I'm into."
While you're trying to decide whether they're reappropriating offensive symbols to divest them of their power or they're just mired in the mess of it all and can't help themselves (one further theory: they're a major-label put-up job, a postmodern prank), you've then got to negotiate that perennial problem of whether it's OK to enjoy music made by people whose views you might feasibly find indefensible. Because Odd Future's slow-grinding, murky and menacing, dark and claustrophobic sickcore – imagine Eno and El-P at the controls of a Wu-Tang project, or NWA on cough syrup – features a brilliant blur of blunted beats and enough detailed richness to make you wonder what might happen when they get given something more expensive to play with than Apple's Logic Studio and Fruity Loops software.
Of course, the band's appeal – and the same goes for Manchester mystery set Wu Lyf – is rooted in their enigma and their status as pariahs, outside of society and its moral codes. The minute they sign a big record deal, as they inevitably will, they will gradually be encouraged to smooth away their rough edges and that vicarious thrill you get from listening to something which you know would repulse your more upstanding friends will seriously be reduced. But for now, they're here, the new Pistols/Eminem, in all their putrid glory.
The buzz: "You've got to have a sense of humour to get these guys as they obviously don't mean some of their twisted, backwards lyrics!" - blog.elizadoolittle.com.
The truth: They're the band they'll love to hate and you'll hate to love.
Most likely to: Get people's goat.
Least likely to: Rap about oatmeal.
What to buy: There's lots of music out there to download.
File next to: Wu Lyf, Wu-Tang Clan, Eminem, the Residents.
Links: oddfuture.com/, mostlyjunkfood.com/odd-future-wolf-gang-gonna-feel-uncomfortable/.
Wednesday's new band: The Boxettes.
View all comments >