Music Arcades: The Hafler Trio: FUCK

This is the first Hafler Trio album that Tim gave me. (We've already had the second, which, at the time of writing is on offer at Amazon Marketplace for a phenomenal £116!)

Again I'm impressed, and again I'm intrigued at how Tim came to choose this. The closest comparison I can think of from my own collection is my Piquet album. It's grainy, gritty and pleasantly unpredictable.

I guess I don't need to tell you that it's designed to disturb. I don't recommend looking too closely at the photos on the CD booklet. Fortunately I didn't give the booklet much attention before I listened, for it might have spoilt my listening. There's an extended essay that seems to believe that, to convey sophisticated ideas, you need to draw a veil of tortured syntax and waffle over your argument. For example, "As sound itself is no more or less than another manifestation of the intermeshing of primal energy, it is with this in mind that this project enters this particular region of this domain." Why couldn't he just say, "As sound is a manifestation of primal energy, the project deals with this," and be done with it?

But no, we get long sentences and dense paragraphs muttering about masturbation, orgasm, Scientology (yep, that bad), taboo and transgression. And it's all about as comprehensible, as subversive and as arousing as a circuit diagram drawn by someone who's lost his ruler.

"The genesis of our very being rests upon the sexual force that may well be termed the life force." Yeah, right. One abstract synonym rests on another abstract synonym that could be called yet another abstract synonym. You're not saying anything at all.

Shut up and get your mojo working, mister.