The third album by Montreal-based experimental music duo
Hangedup follows the same pattern as their first two. Cellist Genevieve Heistek plays a souped-up instrument that's attached to an electronic device that loops and adds feedback and other sonic effects to her playing. (Think Frippertronics, only with a bit less structural elegance and a lot more up-yours attitude.) Drummer Eric Craven -- formerly of the considerably more sedate twee popsters Nerdy Girl -- bashes his kit with manic abandon most of the time and lays out entirely otherwise, with almost nothing in between. Producer
Efrim Menuck (
Godspeed You Black Emperor!) seemingly did little other than turn the machines on, Steve Albini fashion, giving the album a muddy, undefined quality that's particularly frustrating on those passages (mostly at the beginnings and ends of songs) when Heistek's playing evinces a certain lyricism, but adds to the general tumult on songs like the onomatopoeic "Klang Klang." It's rarely pretty, but the soundscapes are often fascinating, for those with a taste for this sort of thing. ~ Stewart Mason