Burial Hex #5

Have just spent a pleasant while listening to "Hunger" a single sided 12" single from Burial Hex released by Italian label Holidays Records in 2010. After witnessing Clay Ruby (AKA Burial Hex) perform a blistering live set in London in 2009 I have spent the time collecting his releases. Some disappoint, some don't - this one doesn't. The 12" is also a good case for being "anti-download". The actual physical beauty of this release is enough to go out and buy a fucking turntable and have the sleeve in your hands whilst the record spins on the deck, this is what the sound / the art deserves and not just to be a line on a list on a computer screen. Holidays Records - www.holidaysrecords.it - are selling it at a very reasonable price...buy it! The sleeve is a picture of a sculptured piece by Haitian artist Andre Eugene, whilst the etching on the blank side of the vinyl is taken from a screenshot of Maya Deren's 16mm film "Divine Horsemen:The Living Gods Of Haiti".
As mentioned before, Burial Hex releases are varied...from out and out noise to church organ symphony. "Hunger" provides (partly) an area of Clay's work I have never heard before. "Hunger 1" sounds like an out-take from the split LP he did with Kinit Her; "Vedic Hymns". Nat Ritter of Kinit Her is credited on this LP..along with Shane Verway. It is based around a poem from Arthur Rimbaud but to my ears Clay could be reading the menu from Pizza Hut, it is read in this slow "black metal" like drawl that means nothing to me. (Vienna). Guttural diphthong (which is a good name for a black metal group...you can have that one on me)! The sound is OK, dark and menacing but the voice is totally unnecessary. "Hunger 1" leads into "Hunger 2". The introduction of a slap bass, studio 54 type disco rhythm and electric drums. Superb...it takes part one and leads it to a higher place. Musically it reminds me of Psychic TV during their "Mouth Of The Night" period, it also brought Shriekback and 400 Blows to mind...but mainly Psychic TV. It is brilliance and why you need to hear this record. (It is a record and not a download).
Research leads me to find that Burial Hex play a one-off show in London in November this year. I doubt that I can make it and hopefully there will be other dates in the UK.