the hive - forth came cerebus and black night

Hear The Track Here

The Hive (or the hive to be absolutely lower case correct) is the brainchild and alter ego of the artist we all know as Burp, a key player in Soundclick's electronic/experimental genres. As many of you are already aware, I am a dedicated, long term fan of this Munich based musician and he has the distinction of being one of the very few Soundclick artist whose entire body of work rests on my hard drive all the way back to material from Emetrics (an early re-incarnation of the Burp personna). It was interesting reading that very first review (Biodiversity, November 2003) because much of what I said at that time still applies. This artists still makes the most intelligent electronica you are likely to hear anywhere.

Ooops, sorry, my bias is showing.

At the very heart of every single track that Simon Witt (aka the hive/burp et al) is his signature aural trademark. In my eyes there is no one, repeat n-o o-n-e, who can duplicate (or even get close to) this artists natural sense of rhythmical patterns, particularly when said rhythms are usually being carried by instruments that have no right whatsoever to be in the rhythm section. Where a lot of them rightly belong is in the bag marked 'strange and unusual bleeps, sweeps, buzzes and burrs' , the sort of thing other electronica artists think of as background or 'washes' There again, the other trademark of this artist has always been to sail as close to the wind as possible, musically speaking, and it's a sure bet that not everyone is going to 'get ' it. What they might get is a headache, ESPECIALLY if you try and make any sense of it.

The whole thing IS the rhythms and what they are doing, and conversely the instruments that are making them do those things. Like fellow electronica/experimental Soundclick artists such as Pilesar, Refrag (whatever happened to Refrag?) and even our old friends Fear 2 Stop, Simon discovered long ago that the only way to make any headroom in this field is to be different and yes, original. This he has been from the very first and forth came erebus is yet another in a long line of cantankerous tracks that make you pull your hair out in frustration while at the same time slapping a happy grin all over your chops. While I don't think it as acessible to new listeners as earlier hive tracks, this track still manages to throw in some heavy duty 'wtf is that' moments - always one of the most pleasurable chores associated with this artist.

Intelligent experimental electronica that is crazy as a mofo. Highly Recommended.