An honor.
paper cuts | PDX | 04/14/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I heard "On Suicide" on a sweaty mix tape of outsider music at my old work, stuffed behind some old Korean pop music and fossilized broccoli. This track, chilled me to the bone... stayed that way. I finally tracked down Hopes and Fears at the library, none the less, proving to be a rare creature in record stores.
At first I couldn't comprehend the vast array of sounds, and depth of enchanting, yet disturbing compositions on display. The lovely and expressive Dagmar Krause's vocals were like the opera, but with a raw, punk passion.
What seemed like a demented pit orchestra churning out these noise compositions... its impossible to put into words... macabre circus music, drone cabaret, prog/psyche rock version of the Salem Witch Trials.
I know I'm missing the mark utterly, but song to song you won't recognize a theme, noises will wail from anonymous instruments, the band will lurch into a melody, and all the while an angel voice is struggling to express her hauntings.
The first track is a lovely, and terrifying intro to the following journey through the darkest reachings of 70's rock. "Joan" a jarring tune a la Pink Floyd with brass bumping along for the ride."In Two Minds" ( a tale about schizophrenia, I think?) is a triumphant journey that has to be heard to be believed. A true testament that these art house militants are about the Rock as well as the experimentation. Angular, and beautiful, Hopes and Fears scales its own murky geography... territory that can only be expressed by the twisted creators.
My young ears; I couldn't classify this sound or the scene, couldn't force it into context, I couldn't put it down.
This is what one dreams about when they contemplate all that is avante-garde, revolutionary, ground breaking.
To this day I don't know much about the band, or related landmark projects like Henry Cow, and involvment in Rock In Opposition. Nor am I aware of the "politics" (lyrically) referred to by rock critics. The liner notes forfeit no answers either.
But there is something cosmically emotive at work on this record that few mortals today can even hope to accomplish again. Demensions that can't be expressed by tools of language. A monument that never existed."