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At the front of this Montreal-based collective (pronounced "hursh-tah") is Mike Moya, founding memeber of godspeed, Molasses, and Set Fire to Flames. Other members of the group include godspeed/etc. members Bruce and Norsola as well as Molasses members Fluffy Erskine and Scott Chernoff. The 55+ minute collection of 13 tracks would more likely find better appreciation among Nick Cave, Boxhead Ensemble, Thalia Zedek and Leonard Cohen fans who appreciate a good score to a murder scene rather than godspeed fans seeking the next rock and roll messiah.The music somewhat follows a progression Molasses could have taken, with vocal — but not vocally drowned — pieces, blending the heavily emotional, bluesy guitar melodies delicately with strings, occasional loops, a frequent appearance of a skillfully played bowed-saw, droney effects, and the rare amount of percussion. Moya's vocals provide a perfect companion in an already appropriate soundtrack to a cold, bleak, wintery evening. With this album, I can honestly say that the collective has effectively harnessed their improvisational experiences into an elegant, carefully-constructed full-length concept studio album. If the Molasses releases can be perceived as taking snapshots of a band known for their live performances, Hrsta's album is the flipside, presenting the intricate feature-length production.
 
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"Zero Zero One" (co-written with C. Oglive) is a fine piece,remeniscent of early Tackhead, with added subtle rasta flair and"found" voices. If it was missing only one thing, it would be theprecise beats of Keith LeBlanc. "Pass The Rizzla," (co-written withSkip Mcdonald and Sunjay) dives into the realms of heavy bass lines andDub he's most famous for. On this, he features the golden voices ofboth Bim Sherman (R.I.P.) and Prince Far I (R.I.P.), two great singersSherwood both worked with extensively and started On-U Sound with.
Both tracks are of course technically excellent but I must admit Ihoped for something more challenging. On the other hand, the two sidesof this single nicely exhibit two styles he developed and cultivatedover the years. In addition, it's good to see him return from the moreroots-orientated stuff he seemed to draw all of his attention to lately.
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- Zero Zero One
- Pass the Rizzla (raw version)
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The beats seem more up front and although very afrocentric most of thetime, they sound latin influenced too to my ears on occasion. A lot ofKirk's work as Sandoz, seems to be tracks seperate from each other,with everchanging patterns within each track. However, this releasefeatures tracks which are more simplistic in design, and something thatI like, is that they seem to have a logical continuity to them ie eachtrack leads into the next one.
It's 71 plus minutes long, got a delightful purple cover and is as farremoved from 'Here and Elsewhere' as could be possible, testimony toKirk's genius to be able to produce such diverse works. Its a darnsight better than the recent EMI / Virgin re-hashes, agreed to,presumably, to generate some cash. If that cash goes into producingmore stuff like 'Afrocentris' and 'Here and Elsewhere,' I, for one,will be well chuffed.
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Be careful to avoid an embarrassing social faux pas at granny's onBoxing Day by not programming a Swedish actress huskily breathing inmock orgasmic frenzy. More fun when people call you at the bank to thetune of Bruce Gilbert's 'Robbery' or when you're visiting the localvery safe nuclear meltdown reactor and a mini 'Air Raid' siren goes offin your pocket. In the park you could choose to confuse avian andcanine breeds with various bird and dog calls recorded by Chris Watson.Alternatively, you could choose to be awakened by many shades ofelectronic noise, the googling of a baby, a swift blast of EvanParker's transcendent circular sax blowing or the shortest PhillNiblock drone ever recorded. CM von Hausswolff employs someuncomfortable pure tone pitches which could turn a few heads if thephone went off in public spaces as they usually do. The funniestselections have to be the little professor voice that says, "Pay nomore attention to me than if I were a machine, I am not much else!" andLeif Elggren's robotic rasps for help! "Help! Help! Help!" I don'tthink I'd want to hear Gilbert and George discussing buying a vaseevery time someone rang, but there's a lot here to choose from! I findmyself gravitating towards the hooky poptone rhythms of New Order andScala as the noises I'd like to herald happy talk. Actually I'd use'Gob of Spit' by Naked City, which isn't on this. However, I vowed longago never to get a mobile phone as I didn't want to grow an extra head.Now it seems that the mania for these gadgets is causing theregrettable Central African Coltan crisis, which you can find out morefacts on via the Touch website (www.touch.demon.co.uk). MerryChristmas! Put a ringtone in your stocking and sample it all to hell!"The first god knew the evil of the phone!" (MES in garden circa 1983).But the last ringtone alert should go to ghost voice explorer RaymondCass; "Hello everybody on the other side."
samples:
- Andreas Karperyd - Accelerate
- Bruce Gilbert - Robbery Airraid
- Mika Vainio - Polar-Tele-Whale-Sounder
- People Like Us - I Know
- Phil Niblock & Guy de Bievre - Tones for Guy
- Scala - Naked
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'Cut The Midrange,...' is a three-track EP that follows in the samecute electro vein as Cylob's "Rewind" single from a couple of yearsback. The title song features a Stephen Hawking-style computer voicecrooning early 90s rave cliches like "everybody is in the place", "rockthe house", "gonna take you higher" and "jack to the sound of theunderground" over a simple breakbeat and computerized plink-plonks& squelches. The middle track, "With This Ring", is short andforgettable, but the electro cover version of the hoary old sea shanty"What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor" that closes the disc is a hoot.
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The music on the first trio recording is strangely polite, withO'Rourke and Prime providing unobtrusive electronic gurgles whilePrevost plays the insistent (and unusually straight) improv drummer,constantly in a hurry to propel the music forward. It's Prevost who ismost disappointing here; his impatience to build momentum is the markof boring, predictable improvisation. But since Prime and O'Rourkedon't make any bold moves to give the music any other shape or take itin a different direction, Prevost doesn't have much room in which towork, so he runs through his bag of tricks. The result does not soundlike a coherent musical statement to me.
More successful is the quartet track, which is built upon a thick, notunpleasant drone. The drone vacilates around one chord, but remains inplace for the entire 17 minutes of the piece. Some scraping metal whichsounds like Adam Bohman's contribution gets nicely abrasive after about13 minutes, and reminds me of how much I enjoy Bohman's solo albums.Even though the metal overtakes the drone for almost a minute near theend, it cuts out abruptly and the drone finishes off the track justlike it started. I found myself wishing that the piece would move intoa different area, but that damn pleasant loop anchors the music sothoroughly that it doesn't have anywhere else to go. Again, I felt likethe particpants were too polite; with so many interesting sounds (notto mention immense talent!) at thier disposal, they sound like theyhaven't played together before and do not wish to offend each other.Obviously, that is not the case, so I wonder why it sounds like it is.A steadily growing drone and a predictible improv, while not terriblein and of themselves, are not terribly exciting; I expect more fromthese guys.
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It's 1983, and Yazoo (or Yaz if you live in North America) has split up. Alison Moyet just didn't want to sing with peppy, happy, robotic synth-pop behind her any more and wanted to pursue a more "soul" avenue. A saddened Vincent Clarke is left holding the songs without a singer, tries out Paul Quinn and Fergal Sharkey but nothing seems right. Defeated, Clarke destroys all recordings and gives up, of course, until he is put in touch with his inner homosexual and launches Erasure. Sadly enough, all recordings in between the biggest productive times are gone, lost, destroyed, never to be seen again. Clarke never looks back.
 
Morr
Fifteen years later, a young boy in Toronto named Jason Amm is struck by lightning and by divine decree begins reconstructing the lost recordings. Piece-by-piece songs begin to surface, through various singles, albums, compilation tracks, remixes and collaborations. Over the next few years, an enterprising record executive (and huge Vincent Clarke fan) residing in Germany by the name of Thomas Morr manages to collect the right amount of songs and has now made that collection available to the world. Okay, so maybe it didn't happen like this, but Amm's third full-length as Solvent (and first for Morr Music) is a collection of nine impressively melodic instrumental tunes from various releases, performed on vintage equipment, recorded by modern gear. 'Solvent City' is a collection varied enough to give a good glimpse into the world of Solvent without being long enough to wear out its welcome.
 
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