Hella : Concentration Face/Homeboy

A friend of mine (who will remain nameless) just happens to suffer from mild, and I do mean mild, cases of irritable bowel syndrome from time to time. This month he went to go see Les Claypool, and Hella happened to be the opening act. The only thing that Rick (ooops) had in his stomach at the time of the show was a couple of bran muffins and five pints of Yinlueng lager in his belly. Then Hella came out. From what I heard they put on a rather noisy and captivating performance but it drew quite the audience. An energetic boom was cascading through the crowd while Rick told me that he came dangerously close to “fudging” his Fruit of a Looms as he put it.

But luckily for Rick (sorry, dude) and whoever the concertgoer standing behind and next to him he was able to contain himself. If you don’t believe that something like this can happen to such a person just stick the Concentration Face DVD in your player and you will see the type of maniacal fury that Hella puts forth in their live show. While the DVD is mesmerizing it cannot prepare you for the spastic noise on the Homeboy EP. No wonder these dudes toured with Dillinger Escape Plan. Right off the bat, I’ll say that Zach Hill gets the “drummer of the year” award in my book..

If you set a blender on frappe and throw down some classical music, some nutty prog-rock and the rapid bass lines, you’ve got what is “Gothspel for You Not Them” as it contains some IDM-ish twitches and a piercing glisten on the treble. The fuzzy chunkiness that clumps about in “Madonna Approaches R&B Blonde Wreckages” jaggedly veers the synth lines to the point of sounding like the music from Mega Man 2 on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. The fuzz does in fact fizzle on “BC But Not Before Christ” with a recurring sound bit on the EP that appears to be the deranged ranting of some trailer park lady. Some whimsical ditties start out “If I Were in Hella I Would Eat Lick” but then go into the direction of some swift grinding which sounds like someone is compulsively sharpening his Ginsu.

This EP may only contain four songs that clock under half an hour, but Hella have put more effort on this EP of jazzy and furious post rock madness than some bands put in on entire full-length albums.

Similar Albums:
The Boredoms – Seadrum/House of Sun
Pink and Brown – Shame Fantasy II
Lightning Bolt – Hypermagic Mountain