Gangleri – musicreviews

Jiha! I have found myself a new Hellfish & Producer cd. An older one this time. “Constant Mutation” may be a little less experimental than the other two cds that I have (see elsewhere), but this is only a little. The very positive side about this, is that there is more room for violent and constant beats, which makes this cd almost from the beginning until the end a very agressive piece of tekno. As ever brilliant and a must-buy!

I read that Hellfish is one of the favourite acts when Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) is playing one of his violent DJ-sets. As far as I know Hellfish has released a few 12″s and one “Hellfish & Producer” cd before this one and I never heard any of these releases.
“Meat Machine Broadcast System” is a weird cd mixing Squarepusher-like experimentalism with very hard techno sounding a bit like what we call “gabber” in the Netherlands and what became known as “gabba” to those who can’t pronounce Dutch. Still Hellfish is far from a gabber-act, since their music is a lot crazier, experimental, twisted and often also harder. I think this will appeal to most people who like insane heavy techno (2nd Gen for example), digital hardcore, Aphex Twin and maybe also those who like Squarepusher and kindred projects, but these last should keep in mind that there is quite a lot 300bpm techno here. Personally I must say that I love this cd!

This duo is probably the most interesting coming from the techno scene that has reached my ears. Over half a year ago I reviewed Hellfish’s excellent solo cd called “Meat Machine Broadcast System” and in the meantime I found out that there are a couple of Hellfish and Producer cds, at least one DJ Producer solo cd and a shitload of vinyls, either together or alone. I definately need to get more of their stuff.
Where “Meat Machine…” contains highly experimental and pretty heavy techno, together these two masterminds make even heavier techno with a lot of hardcore-like tracks, but 100x better, more experimental, crazy samples (often this breakdance kind of music) and insane rhythms experiments and sounds. I paid quite a lot of money for this cd, but it is worth it without a doubt. Heavy, original, crazy, this cd has got it all! Almost a masterpiece.

The mp3s on the Planet Mu site sure did their job. With 2 mins of every track I thought I had enough music of this album to review it (…) but at the same time I wanted to hear the rest of the music too, so I got myself a copy. “One Man Sonic Attack” is a real Hellfish cd. There are a few remixes here, but this didn’t result in another style than the usual weird and very loud. The album opens with a great track with a real beatboy/human beatbox rapping over the loud beats of mr. Hellfish. Then follow odd experimental tracks at times extremely loud and staightforward techno, at other times more in the vein ‘intelligent dance music’. I noticed that the more often I hear this album, the louder is sounds to me. Like with other albums it depends on my mood if I find the music very extreme or not. Strange. Anyway, if you like crazy, fucked-up, funny and extremely loud techno, listen to the mp3s on the site of the label and/or get yourself a copy of my favourite tekno-act! The only minor point about Hellfish is that he keeps sounding like Hellfish. It may be hard to do something new when you already make idiotic music, but the albums tend to sound a bit alike…