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Hau Ruck!

Seven That Spells ‎* Superautobahn (cd 2012)

Actually it is funny that Hau Ruck releases this album. I am recently listening a bit more to guitar-oriented music in quite a variety. A while ago I was searching a bit through the local rock-scene and was listening to the 35007 “radio” at Last.fm. Expecting ‘space rock’ and related, I was soon presented with funeral / sludge / stoner / etc. doom, a style that seems to be upcoming and which sometimes produces some nice music. The more stoner / psychedelic style seems to be the genre that Albin Julius himself shifts towards. Then I heard that Hau Ruck! would release an album of a band that I do not think I ever heard of. Looking into Seven That Spells, this also appears to be a quite sleasy, instrumental sludge band, not uninteresting either. The “Superautobahn” album on Hau Ruck!, though, is not so sleasy and doomy, but more psychedelic rock. Three long tracks of which the first is somewhat faster, the second more doomy and the third seems to hold the middle. Not bad at all. More interesting than Der Blutharsch And The Infinite Church Of The Leading Hand actually, but of course with Albin Julius releasing this material, and also White Hills, this ‘Roadburn scene’ might grow a bit towards the more rock-oriented side of our own scene. Perhaps that will lead to more interesting things and lead me to bands that I did not know.
Links: Seven That Spells, Hau Ruck!

Dernière Volonté * Mon Meilleur Ennemi (cd 2012)

Not unexpected, but the new Dernière is extremely tedious. That is to say, this French act continues to walk the path away from my musical taste. As you probably all know Dernière started as a ‘martial ambient’ project, but soon made a move towards nice ‘military pop’, something in between ‘martial industrial’ and ‘synthpop’. This went well for a couple of albums until the ‘synthpop’ sound started to get the upper hand. The last albums are (to me) very annoying with irritating vocals and boring music. However “Mon Meilleur Ennemi” here and there reminds of the good period, by far the larger part it contains the kind of music that I would run to hit the “ban” button on Last.fm. Of course, there are undoubtely people who do like this direction. If you are one of them, you should definately listen to this newest album.
Links: Dernière Volonté, Hau Ruck!

Bain Wolfkind * Lone Wolf (mcd 2012)

No surprises on this special tour mcd. Six tracks of Wolfkind’s slow bluesrock sound. Perhaps it is a bit less dirty than before, but no changes in the approach. The drums sound computerised (however Wolfkind is drummer in Der Blutharsch And The Infinite Church Of The Leading Hand) and, at least on stage, the guitars also come from a computer. Not as good as his classic albums, but “Lone Wolf” is another nice Wolfkind release.
Links: Bain Wolfkind, Hau Ruck!

Varunna * Ferro E Ruggine (mcd 2012)

As on this mcd, I know Varunna as a band with a line-up in the vein of Alessio B., Jörg B., Albin Sunlight Julius, Dennis Lamb, but yesterday on stage, Alessio was all by himself while at least Sunlight and possibly (I do not know his face) Dennis Lamb were also present. Because of the band-line-up, Varunna sounds more ‘spartan’ than the average neofolk band and combined with some Mediterranean temperament, made Varunna refreshing in the whole wave of cheesy neofolk. The show was minimalistic and however on this special tour-mcd there is more of a line-up, the sound is not as lively as on the “Cantos” cd. Some of the Der Blutharsch And The Church Of The Infinite Hand krautrock sound krept in and now knowing that Alessio is partly responsible for that sound, I see how. In any case, “Iron And Rust” is a lot less interesting than “Cantos”.
Links: Varunna, Hau Ruck!

Bain Wolfkind * Music For Lovers & Gangsters (cd 2005)

It took a while before I also got the first cd of Bain Wolfkind. I should not wait too long with buying cds, because they get harder and harder to find. Going Underground apparantly have copies left of this album. Under his own name, Wolfkind makes a slow and dirty mix between blues, wave and some industrial. With his low voice and dirty lyrics the result is nicely sleezy. A large part of the music comes from keyboards, but there is also some guitar and “harmonica” to be heard. “Music For Lovers…” contains classics such as “Pimp Stick”, “My Name Is Poison” and “I’m Bad Baby”. Wolfkind is quite unlike other bands from the scene. It is nice to have him around. I will have to try to buy classic albums a bit earlier that 6 years after their release.
Links: Bain Wolfkind, Hau Ruck!

Varunna * Cantos (cd 2007)

It is impossible to buy everything so I was happy to learn about a Tesco sale in which older material was sold for friendly prices. I bought Hau Ruck! and Tesco material (quite by accident I guess) that I did not buy when it came out. The reviews of today are all these older releases that you can buy cheaply from Tesco when I write this.
Vanunna is a very nice neofolk band on Hau Ruck! They released two 7″s and this cd. Albin Julius is (or used to be) a member, the other members are Alessio Betterelli and Jörg B. of Graumahd. Fortunately Varunna sounds nothing like the cheesy neofolk of Graumahd. If Betterelli is as Italian as his name, he seems to be the driving force behind Varunna. The sound is nicely mediteranean, with Italian lyrics, drumming, bass and sometimes electric guitar. Nice, stimulating music, nice songs (song better than others), finally again an interesting neofolk album. Why did I not buy it earlier?

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v/a * Zu Neuen Ufern In Alter Frische! (cd 2002)

This was already HR!35. I am not sure why I did not buy it when it came out, but I suppose I thought that I would have most of the music on it. Before HR!35, Hau Ruck! had only released two Of The Wand 7″s, the Dernière debut, the Tribe of Circle debut, some Novy Svet, Sal Solaris, Lucisferrato, Changes, I-C-K, that sort of stuff. Yet to come was the better Dernière material, Foresta di Ferro, Bain Wolfkind, Varunna, etc. Just to place this release a bit in time. Of course, I have much of the material present and of Dernière there is an obviously old-sound track, but the compilation has some nice tracks and taken as a whole, it is a nice compilation and I got it for only 4 euros at the Tesco sale.
Link: Hau Ruck!

Dernière Volonté * Immortel (cd 2010)

Of course it was to be expected that Dernière would move away a bit more from the “martial” sound, but “Immortel” is far far worse than I feared. The sound is still recognisably Dernière, but the tempo went down and with the even more cheesy way of singing, the songs can hardly be called “catchy” anymore; “boring” or even “irritating” is a more fitting description. A few songs start like things will get better, but as soon as the singing comes in and the speed drops again, we are back to zero. I am sorry, but there is little positive that I can say about this album.
Links: Dernière Volonté, Hau Ruck!

Changes * Lament (cd 2010)

Changes is not my favourite band, but they always have a few nice songs. “Lament” starts with a piano track and continues with a bit too usual Changes folk music. Fortunately furtheron there are some other styles such as an OFWATM like song and some more experimental and less (neo)folky tracks. “Lament” has new and new versions of old songs. I am not ravingly enthousiastic about this new album, but as always, there are a few very nice songs here.
Links: Changes, Hau Ruck!

Bain Wolfkind * The Swamp Angel (cd 2008)

The Swamp AngelHowever I have the debut 10″ of Novo Homo, I have seen the man live a couple of times and I like what he does with Der Blutharsch, I have almost completely neglected Bain Wolfkind. Stupid me! “The Swamp Angel” is an amazing dirty (blues) rock album which reminds me of Bluebob here and there. Wolfkind has more releases available, I might need to see if they are as enjoyable as this one.
Links: Bain Wolfkind, Hau Ruck!