Review Heathen Harvest
Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for I am the baddest motherfucking reviewer Heathen Harvest ever spawned and you, my precious readers, are close beside me. My words are my rod and my reviews my staff to protect and comfort you from buying shit. Psalm 56:3. This, of course, being my reinterpretation of that psalm. Which, by the way, the Bible might just say if it was updated by a few thousand years…and I was the new Jesus…and had to listen to some of the stuff I got sent in to review. Owners of the Einzeleinheit Record label please stop reading now for you will not like what you see. Forewarned is forearmed.
Let me make this very clear from the start. When I wrote ‘and comfort you from buying shit’ I’m not stating that this release is shit per say. That would be a very harsh statement to make. Music either connects with a person or it doesn’t. A bit like sex. Sometimes you have an exhilarating time. Others it feels like fucking a corpse. ‘ihbaiklhikö’ is my necrophilia experience. It left me cold and isn’t my thing at all. Blunt and to the point perhaps but why try and lie about something when all you end up doing is deceiving yourself and everyone else. So you can safely say I didn’t like this. One iota. To leave it at that though is unfair to the artist and the label. Being a fairly generous all round good guy I’ll give you my reasons why you may actually get into this artist. I’ve even started the descriptive parts of the review with words to that effect.
WHY YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS RECORDING…BUT NOT ME: The 6 tracks on ‘ihbaiklhikö’ feature stark, stripped and laid bare rhythms and bleeping noises. They kind of go chugga, chugga, tweep, tweep, chugga, chugga …only at different tempos and with a variety of different tweeps. Some tweeps are better than others. Some of the chuggas are a little harsher in composition. The patterns Robert creates are set to a dance beat. A dance beat for those out of their heads on drugs. He has utilised samples from a variety of sources and stuck them together to make a recording that kind of goes…chugga, chugga, tweep, tweep. Those of you into this home made style of music will enjoy it. No seriously. You will. You’ll see how the structures of each track have been carefully layered and set out into their distinctive patterns. You’ll appreciate the tracks that try and add a little more depth, melody and scope to the basic premise of those gone before. You’ll revel in the Teutonic repetitive nature of the recording. The bed sit composer strikes again. Boredom only occurs when one isn’t into what is being heard.
WHY YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS RECORDING…THE PRESS RELEASE VERSION: Punchingly crunching sound stabs and bizarrely babbling noise bubbles form other worldly rhythmical structures, occasionally joined by some organ motives and tiny melodies. On track three there is even a duet between brutal mechanical beats and some happily chirping birds, whilst track five is a pure psychedelic Goa-Trance monster. While a hard bite at first, these pieces take you deeper and deeper into their strangely appealing realms with each listen. Interface music at its most extreme.
There. I’m done. I’ll not crash your party anymore. I’ve given you my version. Even bunged in the labels version by way of comparison. One of us is wrong. You make up your own mind as to who it is. There is a market for this sort of recording. Call it a niche if you will. Music that is composed on computer only. Music that is made for noodling your head to. I have nothing more to add.
By Alan Milne
