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Harsh Reality Music Home
HR120 - Various Artists - France C90 — 1989
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SIDE A:
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X-Ray Pop - Touf Touf
Aehos - Rectitude No. 4
Brume - Panzerfaust 3
La Sonorite Jaune - Reha
Sempiternels - L'Annunciation (de Vide)
Betrayal - Mauri
Vox Populi - Let Us Get Higher
Hanzel & Gretel - C'est le Pere Sadique
Hanzel & Gretel - Teutir Spregue
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SIDE B:

M. Nomized - The Girl in the Sweating Room
Das Synthetische Mischgewebe - Bloody Slime, Significant Symbol for the Force of Tedious Habits
Costes - Fart In My Face
Bernard Donzel-Gargand & Philippe Moenne - Loccoz-Cellules
Totentanz - Future Prospects
RWA - Jesus Trash Can
Alain Basso - Poussieres Dans L'extase
X Non X - Loiseau Malade
Nos Yeux Aveugles - Z.T.T.01
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
 
The Harsh Reality ‘Country’ series continues with a stellar 90-minute set of 17 French artists. As usual there is a wonderful mixture of bands I’m acquainted with and others who are new to me.
 
The always welcome X-Ray Pop kick off the festivities with their usual brand of quirkily seductive avant-pop.
 
Aehos get a chunky 13 minutes to construct an interesting soundscape/collage excursion. A rumbling soundscape-drone lays the foundation over which intermittent voices, singing, bird calls, and a tape mangled mixture of industrial and field sounds flow. At various times I felt like I was in a bustling urban environment, a sewer, a factory, and a forest. Minimal yet engaging as it evolves.
 
Brume’s entry is a collage combination of ambience, jauntily rolling beats and steps, faint voices, and bits of music.
 
La Sonorite Jaune create a subtly intense atmospheric soundtrack that blends, hurricane, Halloween, and factory vibes.
 
Sempiternels keep the soundscape/collage theme going with a thematic fusion of ambient waves, faint church bells, chants, agitated weather conditions, sundry sounds, and a gently but steadily rolling percussive pulse. Lots of layers that are seamlessly but not densely mixed.
 
Betrayal up the energy level with a schizoid blend of off-center electro dancefloor beats, garbled voices, and pulsating and roaring fuzz, static, and grind. A hair-raising mish-mash of parts and pieces.
 
Vox Populi are a little different, incorporating both electronics and real instruments to create a spacey jam with guitar, alien gurgles and bleeps, and other sounds, effects, and ambience. The guitar initially leads the way with propulsive grooving strums, accompanied by chant singing, ambience and assorted electronics. File under Free-Improv for Collage and Psychedelic Space Rock.
 
Closing Side A are two short pieces from Hanzel & Gretel. The first is a mash-up of crazed voices, which could be human, animal, or both, clanking chains, and a chaotic ambience. The second is a hallucinatory glom of singing, music, and miscellaneous sounds.
 
M. Nomized opens Side B with what could be a nifty B-movie sci-fi soundtrack. I like the multi-part off-kilter jamming synths.
 
Das Synthetische Mischgewebe stretch out for 12+ minutes to assemble another entry with a soundtrack feel, in this case fitting for either a horror film or something Quentin Tarantino might cook up. I love the threatening vibe, with rattling chains, ominous percussive thuds, anguished voices, and overall sense of menace. One of my favorites of the set.  
 
Costes get the silliest of the set prize for the fragrantly titled ‘Fart In My Face’. To say that this ‘song’ is hysterically juvenile would be an understatement. You have to hear it to believe it.
 
Bernard Donzel-Gargand & Philippe Moenne create an aquatically drugged bit of tape dragging and percussion clanging that blends spacey, tribal, avant-jazz, and electronic elements. I love the combination of interesting percussion and collage work on this piece. Another one of my favorites.
 
Totentanz add more variety with a song that is equal parts punk, Residents, rock ‘n’ roll, and art damaged dance grooves.
 
RWA ‘s entry is somewhat similar, being an aggressively screaming, noisy punk-goth song but with pleasantly catchy melodies.
 
Alain Basso sucks the listener into a deliriously lysergic, wildly swirling vortex of pulsations, oscillations, and more. Dizzying fun!
 
X Non X stitch together a collage of bird noises, quacks, wind, rocky rumbling, synth melody, and more. Very atmospheric and lots happening in just a couple minutes.
 
Finally, Nos Yeux Aveugles (mispelled on cover) create a minimal soundscape piece that features searing drone waves, laboratory electro pulses, static that unfolds through varying degrees of intensity, and steady clunking steps.
homemade audio folk art by Hal McGee and friends 1981-now
  • HalTapes Home
  • Indianapolis 1981-88
  • Contact
  • Walls Of Genius
  • Jay T. Yamamoto
  • Girls On Fire
  • Harsh Reality Music
    • HR107 If Bwana Godfather Revue
    • HR117 England UK
    • HR118 Everlasting Happy Life
    • HR136 Expanded Metal Meshwork
    • HR160 Subatomic Nurse
    • HR165 Mitch Bridges Of Time
    • HR168 Trans-Siberian
    • HR169 Quadraphase EthnoTronik