Split

Polytechnic Youth return to business with a fabulous collaboration between Ghent, Belgium based Hellvete and Hamburg / Nijmegens’ mighty Phantom Horse.

Hellvete’s “Voor Harmonium I” is the urversion of parts “III” and “IV” which were released early 2021 on the Voor Harmonium LP on Aguirre Records. In Glen Hellvete’s own words “the piece was first presented to the public in February 2016 in a dark and smokefilled warehouse in Ghent to celebrate a friend’s ageing. The stage only lit by a couple of candles and an epilepsy inducing strobe light; the music breathing the atmosphere of being locked up at an old-school bunker rave with Charlemagne Palestine strumming the piano. This record is the music as it was presented that night. Cranked up, entranced and delusional”.

The two Phantom Horse tracks here, are companion pieces to the duo’s Mehr Null album which came out in late 2020. While that album showed a darker, more nightly character, “Vaporsnake” and “Was drauf” sound more like playful counterparts, bathing in the bright light of day. As the duo themselves explain: “’Chain smoke rings like a vapor snake kiss. She says she don’t know why.’” That’s what the voices in your head might whisper while you’re listening to “Vaporsnake”; characterized by the band’s typical light footed melancholia echoing through these words. After that, things take a brighter turn on the 12-minute neo-kraut weirdness of “Was drauf” – imagine a sunburned android fueled by amphetamines frolicking happily through a meadow singing your favourite song”.

“Was Drauf” is an epic kraut gem and worth the proverbial price of admission alone here. A wonderful record housed in a sleeve knowingly -and tipping it’s cap towards- the mighty first Cluster record (post Kluster) in 1971 on Philips. Pressing of 300 on blue vinyl and sure to sell out super quick…..