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Hirameka
Hi-Fi record reviews
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HIRAMEKA
HI-FI - "Play Hard" 7" EP (Gringo)
It's always frightens me when kids this young play music that
sounds as though they bored of the usual musical rules many
years ago. It frightens me because I shudder to think what
kind of stuff they'll be playing by the time they're my age.
Four tracks of quirky and arty post-hardcore that's awash
with the kind of rousing energy that only four teenagers could
produce. The songs are jittery and nervous and often sound
as though they'll topple into a discordant mess, but it's
all kept under control by the fact that these are basically
pop songs went astray. This sounds a lot like early SONIC
YOUTH in places, when they used to be a punk band, to the
point that the singer can even sound like Kim Gordon at times.
Yep, innovative and cool, but not quite hip enough to warrant
trashing your instruments live as apparently they do. But
there again, is anything? (Russell Remains - Fracture)
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| In
Steve Lamacq's weekly column for Clickmusic, he
wrote: "OK. First, I have to declare an interest here.
The original line-up of Hirameka Hi Fi featured two members
who used to go to my old school in Essex (in the backwater town
of Halstead). No-one ever formed bands when I was there, but
there's now a small, but healthy, new lo-fi scene developing
around Colchester which is very encouraging. Hirameka Hi Fi,
who released their debut album 'A Proud Tradition Of Failure'
last year, make a taut guitar noise, like Sonic Youth investigating
the aural dynamics of their local creche. |
HIRAMEKA
HI-FI - "Hirameka Hi-Fi EP" (Extreme Sports)
After a drastic but forced change in line-up, the band return
with a follow up to the highly acclaimed debut album A Proud
Tradition Of Failure. Miriam Vale is a glorious piece of art
rock, resembling something from Radiohead's My Iron Lung EP.
The sparse distorted vocals battle against penetrating guitar
riffs, which gradually relax as the track progresses. Chewable
Form continues in much the same vein, with sharp guitar slowly
building to a pacey climax, with drum and bass taking a backseat
role until the very end. The soothing lo-fi of Forces From The
East provides a respite before Delights In Talk and Laurens,
Iowa take up where Miriam Vale and Chewable Form left off, with
yet more piercing riffs, bass and drum. Mash all that up, add
a bit of noise and distortion, and you'll arrive at Left-Eye
Burned My House Down, a tangled mix of the ingredients mentioned
above. This EP won't please everyone. Think Sonic Youth on a
coffee break, and you'll get a rough idea of what Hirameka Hi-Fi
is about. Daniel Rees (Gutted E-Zine) |
Hirameka
Hi-Fi - EP [Extreme Sports CD]
Took me a while to get a handle on this first release of the
new Hirameka but finally I worked out what was bothering me
[apart from the damn noisy builders outside - stop using that
circular saw before I kill you all!]. This cd is either 18 songs
stuck together or one very long inventive song. It's like they
cut up all the songs, threw them about and put them back together
wherever they happened to land. And it's good. You don't even
get a chance to get bored before they've moved onto the next
bit. So in opening track Miriam Vale the guitars go from chirpy
to menacing and back again without a moment's notice with Tom's
muffled petulant vocals almost tying the song up until 2 minutes
in it turns into a completely different song with waves of gentle
riffing. Delights In Talk starts like a rip-roaring blast from
the old Hirameka with guitars blazing and agitated vocals then
slows into thoughtfulness and muttering. However, this experimentation
with song concepts isn't always a good thing and the last track
should have just have been titled "Call The Cops! Sonic
Youth Have Entered The Studio" and be done with it. Marceline
Smith <paper_cut> fanzine |
Hirameka
HiFi - Sprezzatura [Gringo Records]
This sounds so familiar, which makes the Hirameka guys very
sympathetic. As for comparisons - i am clueless, even though
there's something on my mind... ok. This is lethargic music
with the right sense, to have something to dream about... so,
definitely not boring. The picture that meets the eye feels
good - strong colors, neat outlines and a frog. I won't lose
more words about this record. Very good. (ad)
The
artwork may make you expect some Swedish melodycore band,
but this has UK, garage, Bob Tilton, Dischord, indie, emotion
... written all over it. It was recorded at The Electric Press
(Bob Tilton (again), Spy vs Spy) on 7 (!!!) tracks. Which
means it's really lo-fi although they name themselves hi-fi.
Anyway a quite congenial effort. Watch out for 'em touring
europe october 2002. (th)
This
is some cool music to listen to while cruising through the
city in your car at night. Nine lo-fi-indie-garage tracks
that were recorded in one day. Not something I go crazy over
but I never had bad times listening to it. I somehow like
the atmosphere their songs create, best described with following
word .... urban... yes, this is cheesy and I don't know how
this comes to my mind. Anyway, this is not a bad release...
really. (id) www.danceofdays.org
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Hirameka
Hi-Fi - Sprezzatura (Gringo)
Ah, you see, sometimes it needs to be edgy, sometimes you really
need to be left wondering if they're actually going to make
it to the end with their wonderfully scratchy urgent fractured
shouty (but never too shouty) lo-fi punk rock that's bult ona
legacy of all things K Records/Fall/Stump. Spiky, pointy, like
Homage Freaks, like walking barefoot on pine needles, like dancing
on telephone wires. And all the time in amongst their lo-fi
pointedness and running for a bus, like scissormen.. Shouty,
shouty, urgently shouty and pointed and like little branches
on the trees constantly scratching your face, like birds pecking
at you, and people pointing while they do it. The voice shouts
how he is really sorry. It shuffles, it skanks, it's barbed,
they're like a running ostrich that refuses to bury their heads
in the sand, not your sand, not my sand, not any sand... And
they just distracted a passing person, "Hey, I like this".
Sore and sharp and rather bendy and just right... A fine album
indeed, they should raise their heads with pride. Organ Fanzine |
Hirameka
Hi-Fi - Sprezzatura (Gringo)
Forget Chicago. Check Gringo. This Essex label - alongside likeminded
souls at Fat Cat and in I'm Being Good, alongside the minimal
found sound bedroom experimentalists, and the odd brittle noise
band hailing from Wales (hello McLusky!) - are championing some
of the most vital, challenging, fresh, guitar-led noises around.
Hirameka Hi-Fi are all angular passion and ragged swoops: "All
A-Tremble is Trumans Water given a gratuitous kicking, or Pavement
glinting and made new, struggling to make sense of crap existence.
"Hesitation Rules" is playful in the way a child with
a cheese-grater can be, and keeps hitting those damn high notes;
"The Sum" even harmonises diets. There is always great
music around you. Find out where to fucking look. Everett
True. Careless Talk Costs Lives |
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