HUGO RACE – taoist priests

(CD, Glitterhouse)

If a musician carries his pack for over twenty years without ever making it big, or at least gaining some notority, then he is doing something wrong. In the case of hugo Race I would say, that it is his complete defiance of anything outside his musical vision. For the first decade or so he was interested in laying bare the bones of the blues, first with his legendary band The Wreckery, and up to his new formation, True Spirit, circa to the album “Revelator”. For the lonely visitor, these records left no handle and not grip to hold on to. Like freeform rock-climbing or climbing up frozen waterfalls at night – a deadly dangerous trap. I saw him play live back then and his version of “River Of Nowhere” started a two hour trip that seemed like stepping out of everyday life into another dimension where time has no meaning. I don’t remember a lot of that evening, but I still know that it was one of the best concerts I ever saw.

Next Hugo Race started filling up the gaps in his bare-bone, bare-knuckle songs with layers of sounds, drifting into almost ambient landscapes, building up enormously energetic and irritating walls of sound, in which any unprepared listener was doomed to lose himself, never to find out again. A jungle of sound, full of unknown voices and drones. That led to records such as “Chemical Wedding” or “Last Frontier”, excursions into sound and drone and even trip hop in some ways, more than into song and songwriting, though all songs still retain that basic skeleton. Somewhere deep underneath the slowly dragging river of sounds that washes over them.

Now it is 2006 and Hugo Race has released his about twelfth record and it is called “taoist priest”, and even though this might be his most easily accessible record to date, it won’t gain him any more presence in the broader public, because it is still awash with sounds, hints, ideas and structures from far far away. Melodies still wind themselves along for minutes, needing the listener to go along with them for quite a long time to realize what the song is about. As in the glisteningly beautiful “I know you” with the sparking female vocals of Daniela Ardito. The tempo is still a slow drag for most of the time, sometimes getting even slower. When things speed up, the melodies seem to slow down. Guitars and Organs waver between psychedelia and the blues and nothing seems to hold on for longer than a few seconds, which makes the true miracle of his records the big question about why his music still seems as solid as a rock.

“Ready to go” might be the most rockish, straightforward song Race has ever recorded, with a melody and a beat that would make audiences pump their fists and shout along in other circumstances or when being recorded and played by other bands. And I am not even talking about Nickleback or some such bullshit, but think about the last album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Cave has always been cropping up when Hugo Race has been discussed), for instance, where Cave has left his traditional introvertedness and enigmatic presence for more straightforward and direct measures. On “Taoist Priest” the songs are still filled with sounds and layers that seem to only irritate listeners at first, their full meaning only becoming clear when diving into them.

In commercial terms, all of this is a big mistake, but then again, as I have noted, Hugo Race doesn’t seem to be thinking in commercial terms. All through his long career Race has kept his unique voice, and I am referring both to how he brings his artistic vision onto tape and his real singing voice. This warm yet distanced timbre and his unconcerned yet still emotional tonality and wording. The last musical genre he might have been referring to as such and with serious intent might be the swamp blues. Though it could have been Massive Attack as well. Other than that there is a vast sparkling complex of religious connotations and its promise of revelation contrasted by the everlasting dark despair of the blues.

This is still dark music, best heard in the night, at nightfall or at least when it is greyish dark outside from the rain or the sleet driving through the streets. Hugo Race’s records make people lonely and enjoy it. Open ears feel the depth and unique spirituality in these songs right away and stand in awe before the grand architecture that seems to open up underneath the sparkling surface of the vast waters that is the vision of Hugo Race. And of course, he himself is the taoist priest mentioned in the title, framing the world and time for his coming and leading away all followers in true saviour fashion. “We all join hands / and step into the void / high ever after / high on the joy” (from “Into the Void”).