Candie Hank – Demons (Shitkatapult)

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Another talented nutball, and lord knows we need as many of them as we can get – Felix Kubin crossed with Boom Pam, bundled up into a horse cart driven by Captain Spaulding, stopping to pick up a brace of polka maestroes leaving a luau with sundry cast members of beloved American sitcoms from the sixties, who haven´t aged a bit.

Riding a choppy wave of psychobilly surf guitar on “The Fox” out toward the horizon, not toward the shore, Candie Hank (Patric Catani), a veteran outsider well embedded in the various Berlin “scenes”, carves a cowabunga onto the face of every wave he climbs, fishing up all manner of pop cultural flotsam and repurposing it with the genius of the Professor on Gilligan´s Island. There is also darker jetsam – Demons are challenged by a West Indian exorcist on “What is Your Name” and inner demons seem prowling beneath the secret agent man lick of “Every Night”.

“Solaris and Shadowism” and “Babyshka Demona” reveal a dab hand at integrating electronic and real-string twang, crossbreeding a Victrola with a Space Invaders game and gassy tuba with starlit synthesizer. Together with singer Yuko Matsuyama, a “Swimming Rabbit” is Carmen Miranda´d before little lurching Frankensteins monster mash on the cobwebby dancefloor to “Magnetic Forcefield”. “Transylvanian Voodoo” criss-crosses the Carpathians until you can´t tell Bucharest from Brazzaville. “Elevator Life” makes a silly symphony of the ride up to an office module landscape in fresh Monday morning clothes, careful not to spill a drop of coffee. Finally, a horse opera, a hipster gunslinger dismounting to confront his demons off in the distance, alone under the hot desert sun.

In his appreciation, colleague Guido Móbius can´t quite put his finger on Candie Hank´s candiness, but emphasizes Catani´s genius for play and flow of cunning, hilarious concision. A serious musician not afraid to be an entertainer.

http://catani-music.de/blog/candiehank/candie-hank-album-demonsshitkatapult-2014/
Stephen Fruitman

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Born and raised in Toronto, Stephen Fruitman has been living in northern Sweden lo these past thirty years. Writing and lecturing about art and culture as an historian of ideas since the early nineties, his articles have appeared in an number of international publications. He is also a contributing editor at Igloo Magazine.

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