New Music From Neko Case, The Hu
Neko Case
Hell-On
(Anti-)
Hell-On is the first solo release from Neko Case in five years. Case, whose ability as a singer/songwriter has been critically acclaimed since her debut, fully assumes the mantle of producer with this latest offering.
It’s a welcome move, influenced to no small degree by her collaboration with k.d. Lang and Laura Veirs on a 2016 project that culminated in Case’s inclusion on a panel at “Woman Producer” summit later that same year.
It’s common for artists to gravitate towards greater control of their work over the course of a career, but desire and talent are two different things and for every blossoming creative genius, there are a dozen skilled performers who probably should have stayed on the other side of the recording desk. Case, unsurprisingly, belongs to the former category, a creative genius whose full potential is only now being realized as she asserts full control over her work.
“Last Lion of Albion” is, so far, the most recognizable track on the album, and the most heavily promoted with an accompanying video that hearkens back to the day when videos were as much art as the music they were produced for.
Case’s new-found freedom is on full display in a seemingly sing-song tune whose darker nature is conveyed by a handful of accidentals and single minor chord. Case’s protest song against colonialism delivers its gut punch with the line, “And you’ll feel extinction when you see your face on their money.”
Like any brilliant songwriter, Case never shies away from injecting the universal truths discovered in her own experience. Songs like “My Uncle’s Navy” recount the psychological stains left by a brutish “Uncle” whose casual cruelty towards animals and domineering nature inspired horror in the children even as it provoked amusement in the man himself and, more importantly, in the other adults who failed to consider how it all appears to the eyes of an innocent.
Case echoes a familiar theme prevalent in the work of Stephen King, namely that adults are too often blithely unaware of the damage they do to the very young not through the recognizable traumas of physical abuse or molestation, but from the less obvious impact of thoughtlessness and casual indifference.
Hell-On is the most powerful and sophisticated release yet from an artist who has never failed to create music that is honest, personally resonant, and sonically gorgeous.
The Hu
The Gereg
(Eleven Seven)
Scheduled for release in September, The Gereg is the debut album from self-described “Mongolian Heavy Metal” group, The Hu. The two tracks released to YouTube in late 2018, along with a third released earlier this year, have been gaining significant traction on social media in the last few months especially.
Featuring traditional Mongolian instruments and, most fascinatingly, Tuvan throat singing, the group combines eastern steppe folk music with what is undeniably an aggressive “heavy metal” sound. The result so far is a number one position in April on Billboard’s Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart.
Whether the band’s future is tragedy or triumph depends on the distinction between novel and novelty. Novelty, when applied to the music industry, is a disparaging term, a catch-all for unique acts who, having struck gold once, generally fail to do so again.
Novel, on the other hand, simply refers to what is new or fresh. The difference between being one or the other depends on staying power.
There is no question that The Hu is novel. Prior to the appearance of the group, throat-singing, in this hemisphere, was relegated to PBS documentaries and the occasional pop-culture reference (The Simpsons did it!) In the span of six or seven months, this “novel” act has introduced a millennia-old tradition to a Western world whose mainstream popular music tradition goes back a century and some change.
Whether the novel becomes novelty is an unanswered question so far, but the impact of “Wolf Totem”, “Yuve Yuve Yu”, and “Shoog Shoog” is undeniable and while The Gereg may not wind up on many “Albums to Take to a Desert Island” lists five years from now, the exposure to a tradition from the same culture that produced Genghis and Kublai Khan will likely be remembered by many for a long time to come.
As martially stirring as any Scottish Great Pipe ensemble, the music of The Hu is essential listening to anyone craving a broader palate than the often tepid offerings of pop music.
The meteoric rise of the band (they have been touring constantly since their debut) and the burgeoning popularity of their sound may or may not be short-lived, but for the moment it seems that the Mongolians are once again poised to take over the world.