Hella - Acoustics CDEP
SKU
28-5RC074
Great, funny cover (open it up). "Hella's aptly titled Acoustics EP consists of six acoustic renditions of previously released songs, recorded by a version of the group that doesn't really exist anymore. In other words, this release might seem to be the virtual definition of a stopgap product. Yet Acoustics appears at such a crucial juncture in Hella's history that it could achieve a heightened importance for the group's devoted following. The spazz-phonic outfit has recently expanded from the traditional duo of guitarist Spencer Seim and drummer Zach Hill into a full-fledged quintet, so in a large sense these six tracks represent the final frantic blurt of Hella's original stripped-down twosome. If so, Hella have certainly marked the occasion with an appropriate degree of bluster. Though shorn of their electricity, these six instrumentals retain every ounce of Hella's distinctive and bewildering sputter-- pounding the listener with a sonic impact akin to getting trampled by jacked-up centipedes. Any appreciation for Hella's music must first begin with a healthy admiration for the duo's monstrous chops and intuitive sense for taking high-velocity hairpin turns in perfect tandem...at heart their live act has always been based on their hyperactive and unwieldy guitar/drum duets. All of the tracks on Acoustics are drawn from either 2002's Hold Your Horse Is or 2004's The Devil Isn't Red, concentrating on established favorites like "Cafeteria Bananas" and "Biblical Violence". And on these acoustic versions, Hella recreate the original studio recordings with a precision that seems rather astonishing-- snarled riffs that at first glance might be misinterpreted as random noodling are here revealed to be compositions of manic, near-obsessive organization..."-Pitchfork/Matthew Murphy, September 13, 2006