H3ÖH - The Hafler Trio Bootleg

I initially knew this as a mysterious white-label 12", on the excellently arcane Ash International label. Later on I discovered that it was a collaboration between The Hafler Trio's Andrew McKenzie, Einar Örn (of the Sugarcubes) and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. Also, I luckily picked up the cd in the freebie bin of the record shop where I worked.
This release contains two tracks. The first is a fairly long, brooding track. Beginning with ominous waves of low sequenced chanting, a beat gradually comes in, along with weird spacey noises echoing around the mix, and some more orthodox percussion/electronica sounds. A sense of unease permeates this 20 minute track, but it's also rather beautiful, with its little snippets of melody.
The other track, 'Mindloss,' is even better - a low male chant of 'Oh what a wonderful world' fades in, along with a build up of a live percussion breakbeat, and dizzying off-beat samples. It breaks down into a strange pattern of brilliantly edited sounds, as the beat picks it up again with some tasteful orchestral stabs, and the kind of gamelan-y polyrhythm that Four Tet seems to like so much.
A quality release of great spacey music.



Link removed at artist's request