Rene Hell is the newest project from the uber talented and many faceted Jeff Witscher. he's released albums on Not Not Fun, Chronditic Sound, Agents of Chaos, Arbor, and this one on Type (among many others). his many psuedonyms include: Secret Abuse, Impregnable & Marble Sky among others, but Rene Hell is the most fully realized to my ears.
taking cues mostly from 70's kosmische musik he creates beautifully dense soundscapes of bleak and garbled electronics with washes of other-worldy synth trips. most would equate this with other modern day artists such as Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, Raglani, etc. while i would not argue with this at all i really find this LP bridges gaps between 70's kosmische, modern drone music, electronic psychedelia and even disjointed electronia at times. The B side starts off with spliced vocal samples that wouldn't be out of place on an Aphex Twin record and a steady pulse built from distorted synth stabs, but slowly fades into watery gurgles and slow moving synth tones. it's this very element of randomness that makes the LP so compelling. the constant movement through alternate universes of sound builds a dramatic tension and release that pulls you in. but it's NOT completely random and therein lies the beauty. his sense of momentum and order is what keeps the LP from being a kitschy homage to kosmische and proudly plants a foot in modern composition alongside the likes of Keith Fullerton Whitman, Geoff Mullen, Greg Davis and many others.
"Porcelain Opera" also has the distinction of being released by Type Records who have put out some of the best LP's of 2010 including Jon Mueller, Geoff Mullen, Arp, Heavy Winged, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Thomas Korner, Yellow Swans and more. those are some heavy hitters to keep company with and this record totally lives up to it.
and on a final note I'm uber-excited to have the opportunity to see Rene Hell live tonight here in Austin. It's a rare treat for some of these more experimental acts to make it all the way down here to Texas.
I highly recommend searching for the vinyl record (which is accompanied with a companion CD) however it's sold out at the label, you might be able to find it somewhere on the interwebs.
listen here.
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