Is it still possible to freak people out? These are conservative times, but after you’ve first heard the Residents or seen rednecks battle to be the “filthiest people alive’ in a John Waters film, can music on its own repeat the experience?
The Machine Elves of Hyperspace hope so. Peter Hajje, the dreadlocked and bearded multi-instrumentalist behind the outfit (named after alien clowns, imps and jesters Terence McKenna saw on DMT benders), name-checks Timothy Leary, McKenna and psilocybin, DMT, LSD, Hawkwind, Yes and Jethro Tull; could this be the Floyd/Jarre revival pundits are touting?
Hajje plays in several other bands: a “60s-inspired group named after McKenna’ book, The Archaic Revival; and a couple of metal bands, Killocybin, and Leather and Steel. Solo, he makes extraterrestrial synthscapes pitched between the Radiophonic Workshop’ Dr Who theme and Dave Angel’ mid-“90s Handle With Care EP. It’s wackier than that, as you’d imagine from the previous paragraphs, but the beatless, post-rave elements do work.
Spacey high-end frequencies cycle back and forward, vying for airtime with doom-laden synthesized bass. Halfway, ‘It is the Colour’ is a brutally distorted explosion that comes in at under two minutes. In fact, the entire recording is less than 14 minutes. “What’s Going On’ has nothing to do with the Marvin Gaye classic, at least on a superficial level; instead it loops, with CD-skipping intensity, in tribute to the psychoactive joys of repetition. Drugs are a powerful ingredient here, so it’s only right that the demo EP finishes with a “Celestial Detox.’
Matthew Levinson
