Humble brag incoming, but at TRUSIK we get a lot of music sent to us for review; sometimes that music slips through the cracks and other times it does not. This is a case for the latter. Bhed and a new German label, Hedonism Recordings, make an impressive debut with two tracks that meld heartstring tugging ambience, dub aesthetics, and stripped back motorik beats that aren’t exactly dubstep nor what is considered “bass music”, but something thats falls in the interzone between. With only 100 copies available to the world, it’s truly a treasure to find and what makes the complex adaptive system of the internet and music a digger’s paradise.
“Girl and Parrot” sits at a stately 136-137 bpm range while comprised of loving reverb’d percussions from simple shakers, light snare taps, and bongos while a melancholic reggae skank wafts its way down the back alley. Field recordings and an ambient pad coalesce into a soundfield that triggers saudade where the morning sunlight filters through the spring leaves, and last night’s rain blankets the emerald grass. Every plant is breathing and alive and the birds bath themselves in the newly formed puddles.
A lone church bell rings and it all collapses away into “I Grow Leaves In The Colours Of Dawn”. Upping the dosage of Black Ark psychedelia, Bhed fiddles behind the mixing desk, slowing down the tempo to a torpid moonwalk pace. Subtle, echoing reggae skanks are warped beyond recognition into newer melodic forms that you’d find off those early Livity Sound records as the steady offset thunderclap of the sub tries to realign the gravity beneath your feet.
These simple tracks, with their sparse elements and simplicity of arrangement, evoke a vibe. A real honest vibe; something that sometimes is missed out as the music makers sometimes trap themselves in their heads of trying to get the “snare sounding right” or a “thick mixdown”. Play these loud or play these softly while doing chores around the house, play these when you wake up and have your morning cup of coffee or tea, just play these period.
Girl & Parrot is out now and available from the Hedonism Recordings Store.
