Hania Rani
On Giacometti

彼女は猫が好き She Likes Cats by ThrushezCharming beat tape from Nagoya-based Thrushez that sounds like a collapsing collage of memories channeled through an old boom box, a rainy hologram of audio flotsam, with each track a vignette frozen in time, small pieces of a story. Even when the mood is playfully destructive -- like a cat perhaps -- the tracks retain a meditative dream-like quality, where things are not quite as they seem.

After this long period of pandemic and staying at home, these tracks represent a glimmer on which to look out and have the hope of soon returning all together to party.

Voor Harmonium by HellveteIn his essay ‘The Meaning of My Avant-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music’, Henry Flynt talks about how his music should be analysed as an intellectual tribute to the music of the autochtone, setting aside plain folk references, but adopting academic insights to mold the music one makes as a folk creature. Much of Flynt’s discourse applies to the music of Glen Steenkiste’s Hellvete. Over the past twenty years he has been thoroughly investigating both the ethnic musical language of various regions as well as the contemporary pioneers that preceded him as a drone musician, internalizing concepts such as e.g. deep listening or just intonation. Casting off any redundant ideas or sounds, and stripping down the focus to develop singular concepts, his working method lead to pieces such as ‘Droomharmonium’, in which he shapes the endless variations on a theme, emphasizing detail and nuance rather than multitude. The Indian harmonium here serves as the main device to worship ancient ghosts and masters, and to preserve a continuum in a tradition that touches both folk and avant-garde culture. The materialisations are sustained tone compositions which become a means of appreciation of the people and cultures that paved the way for forms of mutual escapism. This might well be the core of what Hellvete’s music is about. As much as it is a form of self-entertainment – like folk music in the old days – it also invites the listener to a shared experience of sonic reverie, it is a casual gift to the community. This is certainly true for the pieces presented on this album. They were first presented in a smoke filled and darkened art space in Ghent, Steenkiste surrounded by only a couple of candles and just enough stage light to see him erratically moving to the rhythm of the piece, occasionally twiddling the knobs of a Doepfer synth that processed the prerecorded harmonium tracks. Unlike most of his other performances this piece embraced the audience in a trance that was similar to that of an old-school rave club. Flynt writes: ‘The music should be intellectually fascinating because the listener can perceive and participate in its rhythmic and melodic intricacies, audacity of organization, etc. At the same time, the music should be kinesthetic, that is, it should encourage dancing.’ ‘Voor Harmonium’ does exactly that; it builds on the artistic ideas that have long been established in Hellvete’s oeuvre, but the ecstatic nature of these pieces merges the usual spiritual transcendence with one of determined physical bliss. It encourages both mind and body to step into the sound, to be enraptured, to celebrate.

Fruit Express is here! This is their debut 12" EP and "they" are Roma and Madis. A mellow electronica producer meets multi-instrumentalist and old time guitar hero. The outcome? Funky shit with its roots in dub and what seems like some smoky country music. The title track is prominently catchy & poppy, while "Harlan County Line" crosses the border jamming away with a heavy spaghetty western feel. "Samurai" jam holds the mystique levels high, all spacey and mushy in its dub sauce.The 12" is spotlessly sewn together by Tapes who throws the original "No Secret" into a 8-bit blender and out comes... well a sensational 8 bit version "The Secret"."

ABT017 - CA - 2016RP