Herva 'Hyper Flux' (Planet Mu)

ARTIST:        Herva

TITLE:         Hyper Flux

LABEL:         Planet Mu Records Ltd.

FORMATS:       2LP/CD/DIGITAL

CAT#:          2LP: ZIQ385 / CD: ZIQ385CD

BARCODE:       2LP: 5055300386014 / CD: 5055300386021

RELEASE DATE:  24th February 2017

2LP

A:

Esotic Energy

Jitter

Nasty MF

B:

Rule The Sun

Multicone

Lly Spirals

C:

Solar Xub

Meta Wave

Cops Twerk

D:

Peach

Dedicated (ft. Mar G)

Zykmed

CD:

01 Esotic Energy

02 Jitter

03 Nasty MF

04 Rule The Sun

05 Multicone

06 Lly Spirals

07 Solar Xub

08 Meta Wave

09 Cops Twerk

10 Peach

11 Dedicated (ft. Mar G)

12 Zykmed

Few artists have the ability to totally seduce over a few spins like Italy’s Herva. What may seem messy at first listen starts to fall into sharper definition and ‘Hyper Flux’ makes a very strong case for being his most seductive and mature record yet. 

The album has dismantled the broken beats of his early records and drifts, dives and shivers, its beats blended into the haze, everything approached from unusual angles with none of the music sounding entirely digital as it smudges between manipulated live instrumentation and field recordings coupled with synthesis and space - there's a warm heart at the centre of this music. Of making the album he says “I challenged myself to play real instruments. I have a lot of guitars and weird acoustic instruments at my home and also my Dad’s. He's primarily a guitarist and an inventor of instruments, so I have lots of those. Anyway I'm not a pro but I'm able to play drums quite well and I'm not that bad on guitars and bass too, but the weirdo instruments are the best, you are even more free to reinvent how to play them since no one else knows how to.”

The deep ambience of the albums opener ‘Esotic Energy’ melts into the shivering 4/4 pulses of ‘Jitter’. ‘Nasty MF’ pits a sludgy house beat against rough vocal samples whose aggression is disarmed by bell-like melodies, matching one earthiness for another. ‘Rule The Sun’ melts pattering drums and distorted chords with distant piano, while ’Multicone’ takes things down with relaxing undulating chords and clicks and cuts. The centrepiece of the album is the space cruise of ‘Lly Spirals’ which sounds like early 80s boogie blasted into the stratosphere. Things start to get weird with ‘Solar Xub’s drifting jazz, punctuated with scratchy beats and noise. ‘Cops Twerk’ is a rattling piece of uptempo techno with flickering rave chords and a vocal that sounds like police radio whereas ‘Peach’ is a bristling piece of ambient house, all reverbed hits and reversed stabs over a scuttling broken drum kit. ‘Dedicated’ featuring the vocals of Mar G. balances loose chords and a reversed break against her plaintive, striking vocal. Hyper Flux finishes the way it started, with the distorted chords of ‘Zykmed’, echoing dust and hiss played out over a gentle nostalgic melody.

cool! I liked the last one! but only listened a few times. will spin again in preparation for this one

can't say I loved the track but it's really unique, will check out the album

first album is actually quite nice

  On 1/23/2017 at 8:51 PM, dr lopez said:

first album is actually quite nice

yeah just listened and it's really good. I loved the track on the mu20 comp but never listened to the album for some reason

Will order. Mu should just start a subscription service and send me everything they release.

  On 1/23/2017 at 9:20 PM, Bechuga said:

Will order. Mu should just start a subscription service and send me everything they release.

Agree

lol that would be dope

  On 1/24/2017 at 2:28 AM, Ascdi said:

 

  On 1/23/2017 at 9:20 PM, Bechuga said:

Will order. Mu should just start a subscription service and send me everything they release.

 

Agree

Yep. Especially if it works out cheaper for me!

Just ordered this, KILA is a wicked album and I'm excited to hear this.

A strange album, even by Mu standards. Gonna take a few listens to wrap my head fully around this one, but I like it so far.

I gave it 2 sober listen throughs and I must agree about that strangeness of it all even compared to his last mu album. I noticed a zappa vocal sample from 'Joe's Garage'being heavily used in Lly Spirals.

I'm having a really hard time getting into this.  Have listened all the way through 4 times and and none of it is sticking.

Listened to it again and I think the cover is a hint towards the content: fractured. All of the notes, beats and arrangements are there, but not quite aligned with each other. It's like a film where the video and the audio are desynched, and you're still getting all of the information needed but not quite in the right order.

Weird. But I like it! Reminds me of my first time listening to Autechre. Best to not listen too hard and let it sink in subconsciously, when you least expect it.

Thats some good advice. I shall give it another go tonight. 

Yup, third time was a charm to let these compositions sink in. Know that you mention ae, I can't help but hear melodies between the line like quality to this album.

  On 3/3/2017 at 6:13 AM, GRVGLTCHR said:

Yup, third time was a charm to let these compositions sink in. Know that you mention ae, I can't help but hear melodies between the line like quality to this album.

Yep, funnily I got an autechre vibe from the first listen through, yes its "strange" but largely enjoyable and I need to make some time to give it a few more plays through.

much better than the ekoplekz album this year

there's some ae, oval, mouse on mars, vaporwave.... really fun!!

I didn't get super into Kila, but this album is awesome. I love how unabashedly strange it is. I gotta admire the way this is composed and the sounds they picked to work with. I dunno how to put it into words. It's an exploration to listen to, but nothing is so far flung that it's uncomfortable. Messy but intimate, like a well lived-in room.

necrobumping this thread from the depth of the subforum because I just got the CD from the latest planet mu sale. Was expecting the usual 0 replies thread, so I'm glad everyone in this thread seemed to enjoy the album. Very much recommended.

He has a few EPs released through other labels, you can find them digitally via bandcamp.  Some good interesting stuff out there.

stupidly awesome album aye