Holzkopf
"Only a bad harvest can save us" reviewed:
Stylus (Winnipeg's CKUW FM magazine)
Dec., Jan '01/'02
This story starts simply
enough, a story like many others: Positioned amongst the complete
open, surrounded by nothing and trapped - Here meet Holzkopf,
from the Canadian prairies. To start: Ringing shards of noise,
buzzsaw bits of sound, shaven into some strange melody which
continues into something beautiful and noisy, literally. This
would be musique concrete if it were less driven by the sound
of bass and clicks and mild tune. The abrasion level here is
great and sporadic, all the while making sense. Hear the warbled
video game confusion of "The Gene Puddle" build into
the deep "Mahout." Heartbeats, deep bass rumble, organic
break beats and a simple bit quivers it's way backwards into
crunchy sonic shards, all to explode in your ears. "Mahout"
is remarkable, guttural. Holzkopf, who is Jake Hardy of Saskatoon
, has named this album in tribute to "the role that 'chance'
has played during radical social changes and events in the past"
and that "a notion of chance had made apathy an unaffordable
luxury for the average citizen during countless political actions
in the past." For your disruptive headphone listening enjoyment.
Thank goodness for geography.
Deanna Radford.
Exclaim!
Feb., '02
Holzkopf's first "official"
release builds on the bedrock of ambient work, in the vein of
early Mouse on Mars and Aphex Twin. Eventually the placid surface
of the sound becomes ruptured by digital distortions and arrhythmic
outbursts, only to collapse into silence and repair the damage
done. Holzkopf manages to make the jump from ambience to noise
orgaincs and maintain a musicality and appeal many others in
this field sacrifice. In its most abstract and aggressive moments
the sound retains layers of coherence and colour that reach out
from the boundaries of pure noise. Only the track "Kejime,"
which relies on a hip-hop styled drum break, stands out of place
in the mix. Otherwise, this is a rewarding listen for fans of
minimal electronic/noise music of all types.
Eric Hill.
All
Music Guide
March. '02
Strange premises: Holzkopf,
a German word, means "oaf." But Jake Hardy is Canadian
born and raised, and living in Saskatoon in the middle of the
prairies (nothing over there even remotely evokes Germany). The
title of his debut CD is Only a Bad Harvest Can Save Us, an obscure
reference to the fact that back in 1934, a bad harvest in this
region fueled the protest march of labor camp workers to Ottawa.
How does all this relate to the music? It doesn't. The paradox
of being trapped in the great open (some would say void) that
is the province of Saskatchewan is what fueled this album. Clocking
in at a little under 36 minutes, its shortness makes the statement
all the more clear: you must populate your own private universe
for the sake of your own sanity. Hardy keeps busy creating strange,
hybrid music on his computer. Part lo-fi techno (garage techno,
would these words mean something?), part sound collage, and an
extra dose of noise, this CD is schizophrenic in a beautiful
sense. The listener is being bounced between close-but-not-quite-catchy
electronic tunes ("Mahout"), post-IDM constructions
("Holzkopf"), and warped sonic experiments ("The
Gene Puddle"). Then again, they all fit together, like different
elements of a single, coherent world. But one gets the impression
Only a Bad Harvest Can Save Us is still only a beginning. Hardy
can polish his art some more and refine his own sound. Promising.
François Couture
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©2007 : Dainty
Deathy Productions