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Helena Hauff - A Tape

    • Label /
      Handmade Birds
      HBEATS080
    • Released /
      February 2015
    • Style /
      Techno, Experimental
    • Comments /
      18 / View
    • Rating /
      3.2/5
    • Previous
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    Helena Hauff - A Tape Helena Hauff - A Tape
    Helena Hauff - A Tape Helena Hauff seems refreshingly indifferent to dance music's conventions. Her first release, a mixed cassette for Blackest Ever Black's Krokodilo Tapes imprint, contains beatless, somewhat terrifying industrial tracks. Now comes a bigger "fuck you" move—she's put out her debut album, A Tape, as a cassette-only release on Handmade Birds, a Dallas label that's previously issued music by Prurient and Merzbow.

    In a way the pairing makes sense. Take "for i am dead," a two-minute interlude that begins with muffled vocals and moves into a queasy synth line before disintegrating into peals of shuddering noise. Everything about it, from its title to its satanic growl, fits into the American tradition of crusty experimental labels, from Broken Flag to Load Records. "for i am dead" arrives within a run of creepy ambient tracks, evidence that Hauff put a fair amount of thought into the album's pacing and dynamics.

    Since Hauff's first record on Werk Discs, she's been of a piece with the current horde of hardware-obsessed producers who sync up a few classic drum machines, get wild and record straight to tape. These sorts of tracks make up the bulk of A Tape. Some of them work really well. "c45p" rides a playful synth line over austere, jacking drums, echoing the legacy of dark, Chicago-informed dance music from The Hague. Starting the B-side, however, is "tape7," a jumbled drum machine jam whose 909 toms redline into an overdriven mess. "split scission" goes for horror movie organs, but it's so campy it sounds like the soundtrack for a game you'd play on an Intel 486. Many of the acid tracks are just good enough—competent demonstrations of hardware dexterity that would sit nicely on thousands of dusty twelves from the '90s.

    Within the noise and lo-fi rock communities, tapes and CD-Rs helped democratize the album format. Gone was the need to carefully compose, practice and pay for expensive recording time—why do all that when you can set up a boombox, record a jam and sell 15 copies to nerds on the internet? Helena Hauff credits the tiny, punkish Golden Pudel club as being integral to her sound, having given her the freedom to take risks and make mistakes. Perhaps that's why she feels comfortable releasing her first album as a 200-press cassette. There are moments, such as on album closer "$§"$43" where she effortlessly combines her EBM, acid and industrial influences. But, perhaps due to the low-key style of release, some of the ideas on A Tape feel half-baked.
    • Published /
      Thu / 12 Mar 2015
    • Words /
      Matt McDermott
    • Share
    • Tracklist /
      01. l#+#l
      02. c45p
      03. 29acid3
      04. pps
      05. for i am dead
      06. yyh
      07. tape7
      08. split scission
      09. hdowed
      10. ff297-3
      11. btdr1123
      12. $§"$43
    0/
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    Upcoming dates

    • Fri22/Feb 2019

      Newcastle

      Ape-X 'Skew-Whiff' - Helena Hauff, Anna Wall & Dr. Joseph

    • Sat23/Feb 2019

      West

      Prōcess

    • Fri01/Mar 2019

      Amsterdam

      Unpolished 2019

    • Sat02/Mar 2019

      Dortmund / Essen

      The Third Room x Mischanlage 02

    • Sat02/Mar 2019

      Dortmund / Essen

      The Third Room x Mischanlage 02

    • Fri08/Mar 2019

      All

      Helena Hauff

    • Sat09/Mar 2019

      London

      Helena Hauff presents: Return to Disorder

    • Thu14/Mar 2019

      Paris

      Electrochic

    News

    • Mon, 04 Feb 2019

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    Reviews

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      Various - No Return Vol. 2

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      Helena Hauff - Have You Been There, Have You Seen It

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      Various - So Low: Remixes

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      Helena Hauff - Discreet Desires

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      Helena Hauff - Lex Tertia

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      Helena Hauff - Lex Tertia

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      Helena Hauff - A Tape

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      Black Sites - Unit 2669

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      Helena Hauff - Shatter Cone

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      Helena Hauff - Return To Disorder

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      Black Sites - Prototype

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      Helena Hauff - Actio Reactio

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