[Musik Krause]

The year’s first release from Musik Krause comes courtesy of Krause Duo themselves, featuring frequent label contributor Ian Simmonds on vocal duty. The two tracks on Hell on Earth are imbued with a dusty, searching quality — a driving-in-the-desert vibe, perhaps — helped in equal parts by Simmonds’ smooth baritone and what sounds like live, organic instrumentation.

“Way Home” has an initially clunky pace, as restrained hand drums sit on the edges of a misshapen arpeggio. Although the addition of some snares lend it some form, it nevertheless spends its remainder ultra-loose, seemingly on the edge of falling apart. At intervals, everything is punctuated by a vocal sample declaring, “I’m on my way,” and along with a huge, reverbed piano stab, the pace is livened considerably for the entry of Simmonds’ vocals. The vocal and lyrical content will not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s hard to deny their complementary position to the track’s eccentric jazz-bar atmosphere.

On the flip, “Big Change” is contrastingly noirish and downcast, taking the better part of five minutes to build up into a consolidated structure. Its minimal, brooding sensibility is fairly reminiscent of mid-2000’s Dial, especially in the way the bass line and reverbed keys seem to overwhelm the other elements. When Simmonds finally appears, he’s suitably low-key, murmuring about the titular “big change” as the track threatens to break into dance floor mode. And it does, in a way, developing a garagey rhythm that sounds unsure of itself and dissipates before locking into a real groove. Overall, Hell On Earth is a relatively unconventional record, as Krause Duo and Ian Simmonds prefer to embed their hooks in quirky arrangements. While the record’s success largely depends on one’s reception of these quirks (especially the vocal bits), its sonic particulars are unquestionably unique in the contemporary marketplace.