HR020 — Mental Anguish — Hellhole — C60 — 1985
|
Side A
Sad Horror Film Who Are You? View From The Top Soul Search Constructive Terrorism Coon Ass |
Side B
Blood Spill Mourning Rendezvous He's Harmless Hellhole Bubba-insky |
all instruments C. Phinney
except for Drum Program & Back Up Vocals on "He's Harmless' and Harmonica & Bongos on "Hellhole" done by Pete McLean.
except for Drum Program & Back Up Vocals on "He's Harmless' and Harmonica & Bongos on "Hellhole" done by Pete McLean.
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Hellhole is the fourth cassette album from Chris Phinney’s Mental Anguish solo project. Side A kicks off with ‘Sad Horror Film’, on which a motoric pulse meets old time video game rhythms to anchor a blend of somber melodies, lightly moaning drones, and spacey atmospherics. I like the way Phinney arranges his multiple components and his flair for editing and arranging is a characteristic of the entire set. ‘Who Are You?’ is similarly somber, with a voice that at times sounds like a human ghostly wolf howl, though when the lyrics are discernible it sounds like a spectral voice calling from limbo. I like combination of voice, off-kilter robotic rhythms, and homemade Phantom of the Opera keys.
With ‘View From The Top’ we’re getting into sci-fi soundtrack territory. I love the blend of freaky Forbidden Planet styled effects, tinkling and bubbling alien bells, searing, cosmically symphonic keyboard chords, and all around electronic kosmiche vibe. Damn good job of image inducing mood creation. I like the combination of electro-tribal percussion, delicate sticks-on-glass drumming, symphonic prog keys, and deep space effects on ‘Soul Search’. ‘Constructive Terrorism’ is like an Industrial assault on some cracked Residents song. It’s intense, yet tempered by a merrily wailing melody and battery of pulsating and raining effects. ‘Coon Ass’ is a dizzying mélange of varied electro percussion and crazed vocals that recall The Residents’ Third Reich 'n Roll.
‘Blood Spill’ opens Side B, being another somber moody piece that brings together multiple layers of dreamy melodies. It’s got a homemade space-orchestral vibe, which is nicely offset by a skittishly off-kilter rhythmic pulse. ‘Mourning Rendezvous’ features beautifully dreamy melodies. I felt like I was in some kind of pleasantly spaced out dreamland. Phinney veers into far more aggressive territory with ‘He’s Harmless’, an electronic space-industrial, almost dancey, rock ‘n’ roll dirge.
There’s more interesting percussion, effects and melodic fun on the title track, which includes bongo and harmonica contributions from Viktimized Karcass drummer Pete McLean. Rapid fire bongo and electronic melody and beats, chirping birds, squeaky toys, and harmonica all come together for a seamlessly chaotic blend of rhythm and sound. Finally, the album closer is ‘Bubba-insky’, a tasty slab of space-symphonic prog with underlying low drone waves.
CHRIS PHINNEY INTERVIEW by JERRY KRANITZ
JK: In our last interview you said you didn’t love the previous Mental Anguish tape, Shot In The Dark (HR013), and you singled out the drum machines. Any difference of opinion on this one?
CP: Hellhole is where I actually started liking my own stuff.
JK: What changed?
CP: Better mixing job. More thought-out. I think ‘Mourning Rendezvous’ is on there, it was dedicated to my dad. I just had gotten better at recording, and instead of just throwing in a bunch of crazy ass drums, I made sure the drums, if they were there, actually fit with the piece more so than on Shot In The Dark.
JK: So less a matter of the actual music than the recording quality and your mixing skills?
CP: Yeah, the recording quality and mixing skills were better as well. But with the music I had finally found a niche that I wanted to proceed in.
JK: Right out of the chute, with ‘Sad Horror Film’, I’m hearing multiple components that seem really well mixed. There’s a lot going on but it all comes together seamlessly.
CP: ‘Sad Horror Film’ is the track that was picked for the Cherry Red Record compilation. (Close To The Noise Floor Presents… Third Noise Principle: Formative North American Electronica 1975-1984 (Cherry Red Records 2019, 4-CDs) )
JK: The mood is largely somber throughout the set. And it’s got really nice melodies. Like ‘Who Are You?’ I described as “a voice that at times sounds like a human ghostly wolf howl, but when the lyrics are discernible it sounds like a spectral voice calling from limbo”. So you’ve got this somber theme and really nice melodies throughout the album. It just comes together nicely as an album.
CP: I had finally got to a point where I thought I was doing…. I was liking it, let’s put it that way. Like the earlier ones, at the time I put them out I wasn’t second guessing them, listening back later on I second guessed them. But I don’t second guess Hellhole and I don’t second guess anything after that.
JK: My descriptions of the tracks ‘View From The Top’ and ‘Soul Search’ mentions symphonic prog sounding keys. What kind of keyboard was that? It’s most prominent on ‘Bubba-insky’.
CP: It’s mostly Korg Poly-800.
JK: I associate most of what I’ve heard throughout the Harsh Reality catalog so far with aggression, but there’s such beautiful melodies on this album. Is that just the mood you were in at the time?
CP: Probably the mood. Plus I was trying to change and get to where it’s something I actually liked a lot. We’ll get back into some noisier Mental Anguish later on.
JK: I liked Pete McLean’s (Viktimized Karcass drummer) harmonica and bongo contributions on the title track. Did he just happen to sit in with you on that one track?
CP: Yeah, he was just over here drinking and recording.
JK: You said ‘Mourning Rendezvous’ was a tribute to your dad?
CP: Yeah, it was recorded for my dad.
JK: Had he already passed away?
CP: Yeah, he’d been dead for a little while. I’ve got a whole tape dedicated to him later on.
JK: When you say you started to like what you were doing, do you mean consistently from here on?
CP: Yeah. There’s always pieces that when you go back to them you think I could have done this or that different. A song is never really finished. You can go on and on. I’ve had this discussion with many people. Nothings ever really finished. You just have to know when to quit.
Hellhole is the fourth cassette album from Chris Phinney’s Mental Anguish solo project. Side A kicks off with ‘Sad Horror Film’, on which a motoric pulse meets old time video game rhythms to anchor a blend of somber melodies, lightly moaning drones, and spacey atmospherics. I like the way Phinney arranges his multiple components and his flair for editing and arranging is a characteristic of the entire set. ‘Who Are You?’ is similarly somber, with a voice that at times sounds like a human ghostly wolf howl, though when the lyrics are discernible it sounds like a spectral voice calling from limbo. I like combination of voice, off-kilter robotic rhythms, and homemade Phantom of the Opera keys.
With ‘View From The Top’ we’re getting into sci-fi soundtrack territory. I love the blend of freaky Forbidden Planet styled effects, tinkling and bubbling alien bells, searing, cosmically symphonic keyboard chords, and all around electronic kosmiche vibe. Damn good job of image inducing mood creation. I like the combination of electro-tribal percussion, delicate sticks-on-glass drumming, symphonic prog keys, and deep space effects on ‘Soul Search’. ‘Constructive Terrorism’ is like an Industrial assault on some cracked Residents song. It’s intense, yet tempered by a merrily wailing melody and battery of pulsating and raining effects. ‘Coon Ass’ is a dizzying mélange of varied electro percussion and crazed vocals that recall The Residents’ Third Reich 'n Roll.
‘Blood Spill’ opens Side B, being another somber moody piece that brings together multiple layers of dreamy melodies. It’s got a homemade space-orchestral vibe, which is nicely offset by a skittishly off-kilter rhythmic pulse. ‘Mourning Rendezvous’ features beautifully dreamy melodies. I felt like I was in some kind of pleasantly spaced out dreamland. Phinney veers into far more aggressive territory with ‘He’s Harmless’, an electronic space-industrial, almost dancey, rock ‘n’ roll dirge.
There’s more interesting percussion, effects and melodic fun on the title track, which includes bongo and harmonica contributions from Viktimized Karcass drummer Pete McLean. Rapid fire bongo and electronic melody and beats, chirping birds, squeaky toys, and harmonica all come together for a seamlessly chaotic blend of rhythm and sound. Finally, the album closer is ‘Bubba-insky’, a tasty slab of space-symphonic prog with underlying low drone waves.
CHRIS PHINNEY INTERVIEW by JERRY KRANITZ
JK: In our last interview you said you didn’t love the previous Mental Anguish tape, Shot In The Dark (HR013), and you singled out the drum machines. Any difference of opinion on this one?
CP: Hellhole is where I actually started liking my own stuff.
JK: What changed?
CP: Better mixing job. More thought-out. I think ‘Mourning Rendezvous’ is on there, it was dedicated to my dad. I just had gotten better at recording, and instead of just throwing in a bunch of crazy ass drums, I made sure the drums, if they were there, actually fit with the piece more so than on Shot In The Dark.
JK: So less a matter of the actual music than the recording quality and your mixing skills?
CP: Yeah, the recording quality and mixing skills were better as well. But with the music I had finally found a niche that I wanted to proceed in.
JK: Right out of the chute, with ‘Sad Horror Film’, I’m hearing multiple components that seem really well mixed. There’s a lot going on but it all comes together seamlessly.
CP: ‘Sad Horror Film’ is the track that was picked for the Cherry Red Record compilation. (Close To The Noise Floor Presents… Third Noise Principle: Formative North American Electronica 1975-1984 (Cherry Red Records 2019, 4-CDs) )
JK: The mood is largely somber throughout the set. And it’s got really nice melodies. Like ‘Who Are You?’ I described as “a voice that at times sounds like a human ghostly wolf howl, but when the lyrics are discernible it sounds like a spectral voice calling from limbo”. So you’ve got this somber theme and really nice melodies throughout the album. It just comes together nicely as an album.
CP: I had finally got to a point where I thought I was doing…. I was liking it, let’s put it that way. Like the earlier ones, at the time I put them out I wasn’t second guessing them, listening back later on I second guessed them. But I don’t second guess Hellhole and I don’t second guess anything after that.
JK: My descriptions of the tracks ‘View From The Top’ and ‘Soul Search’ mentions symphonic prog sounding keys. What kind of keyboard was that? It’s most prominent on ‘Bubba-insky’.
CP: It’s mostly Korg Poly-800.
JK: I associate most of what I’ve heard throughout the Harsh Reality catalog so far with aggression, but there’s such beautiful melodies on this album. Is that just the mood you were in at the time?
CP: Probably the mood. Plus I was trying to change and get to where it’s something I actually liked a lot. We’ll get back into some noisier Mental Anguish later on.
JK: I liked Pete McLean’s (Viktimized Karcass drummer) harmonica and bongo contributions on the title track. Did he just happen to sit in with you on that one track?
CP: Yeah, he was just over here drinking and recording.
JK: You said ‘Mourning Rendezvous’ was a tribute to your dad?
CP: Yeah, it was recorded for my dad.
JK: Had he already passed away?
CP: Yeah, he’d been dead for a little while. I’ve got a whole tape dedicated to him later on.
JK: When you say you started to like what you were doing, do you mean consistently from here on?
CP: Yeah. There’s always pieces that when you go back to them you think I could have done this or that different. A song is never really finished. You can go on and on. I’ve had this discussion with many people. Nothings ever really finished. You just have to know when to quit.