Weed
Hard To Kill
»
Weed
Hard To Kill
Green Galactic, 1999
RiYL: Laika, Portishead, Hooverphonic, Sneaker Pimps |
Instead, electronic music has evolved into a hydra of its own, spawning seemingly infinite subgenres and a veritable club culture/terminology. The music's forward-looking mentality offers a potent antidote to invented industry trends. But by the same token, it still takes a skilled musician to create interesting music, the aid of technology notwithstanding.
The music of Dan and Cristina Handrabur, the Vancouver-by-way-of-Romania husband and wife team that record under the name Weed, is the ultimate example of how the power of equipment can manifest musical landscapes out of simple thoughts. Stripped of their electronically-created layers, the songs on Weed's debut album Hard To Kill would be unpresentable, but not unlistenable (probably something akin to the Sneaker Pimps). Although unspectacular, the album is a testament to the Hadranurs' collective skill in shaping these tracks into something far more thought-provoking than plain songs.
Hard To Kill is a dense collection of dancable beats, samples, live instrumentation and traditionally trip-hop basslines. Weed touch on, but never over-appropriate, the futuristic feel inherent in the more propulsive material of Bjork and Laika. Cristina Handrabur's vocals appear in various forms of computer-enhanced disguise, and although she has nowhere near the range of her Icelandic counterpart, her breathy intonations lend the music a highly alluring feel.
Behind off-kilter beats, flute samples and a bassline Tricky would beat up a journalist to grab, her voice gradually floats above the hectic sound melange underneath on "Further Away." Gurgling synths and a bendy guitar melody encircle her on the Laika-ish title track, while her sweet chorus makes "Fly Together" a great selection for the chill-out den of your choice. "If Only You Could See" is the album's standout, a dizzying rush of synths and simple rhythms that jumpstarts the mind and pleases the ears.
Dan Handrabur, a veteran DJ and classically trained musician who operates the the OuterSanctum label, creates made-for-headphones tracks that never lose sight of the fundamentals: a catchy hook here, an ass-shaking rhythm there and some synth heroics to wash it all down. The more abrasive material ("Dazzling Gasoline") is much less distinctive, and a few of the songs are guilty of run-of-the-mill trip-hop tactics. Overall though, Hard To Kill contains enough worthwhile material to warrant repeated listens. And at a time when everybody and his wife has a sampler in the back room, that is no small feat.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"