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Rok Lok Records : Reviews
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Reviews for [RL61]
Hanna Elson "Singles Club #5"




  • Depression Chamber
    This was a true surprise. Someone I’ve never heard of making music I generally do not have the opportunity to be completely acquainted with. Hannah Elson, personally, sounds like someone who wants to be happy (and maybe generally is), but instead of negating to ultra sparkly smiles and being stoked on life, the odd feeling of late night memories and waltzing down a flight of empty hospital stairs echoes from your speakers. These songs are very raw, not so raw to the point where it becomes a lesson in patience or admitting you really aren’t into lo fi, but raw as in they sound like they were recorded when she had the opportunity to be at home all alone. I’ve listened to stuff like this before, actually. Although it seems more like a splash of this and that rather than just one thing. If Hannah Elson ever decided to record cleanly, the music she’d create would probably sound a little bit like Calamine or something like that. She doesn’t make clean sounding music though, it’s a little more airy because of that. It has this mystique to it that’s pretty calm, and a little alarming though. Maybe this is the pop and lo fi almost noise holding hands with one another. Maybe a mix of Calamine and The Savage Young Taterbug could be an apt description. Crooning to the sound of imperfect recordings. And oh geeze, the voice that carries its own weight even in between the tape hiss and guitar. The lyrics they carry are very insightful, and maybe even a little more naturalistic than I’m used to. Chechnya, when I first listened to it seemed so distant and a little ragged, kind of like the dregs of guitar pop turned country/folky. I really dug it, a lot. The more listened, the more the lyrics connect with the sweet almost drunk like delivery of Hannah’s voice, and the more it seems to be that the dregs come from growing up. Is Chechnya a coming of age story? Is it personal? Why wouldn’t it be? Although I’ve never been in a village in the south eastern part of Europe I can feel the pressure of some of the lyrics, maybe most of them. The song ends almost abruptly as though it never even played. The Buddhist & Me is nearly a Dreiserian tune (after listening to the tape over and over, I realize that all the songs seem to be naturalistic in a very somber way), with descriptions of being pushed and letting the pushing dictate where you go, perhaps. It’s just gleaming with an afternoon drunk after a histrionic night in some backyard thinking about some asshole you could never stop loving. Gauze is another naturalistic almost nightmare (reality is such a fucking nightmare) played a little louder than the other two tracks on here. The sounds match the description, and it’s fitting as a closer. This is a really short tape, unfortunately! Hannah Elson doesn’t rewrite or re invent or do anything different, but this is the type of music a person makes to let out some steam. A total pleasure to have this little single. Aesthetically, the tape is similar to the others of the series. They jcards are In Full Colour (wink wink) with information on them. The cassettes themselves have stamped stickers on both sides (red bird) detailing which is side A and which B. I think, again, that these were dubbed the the ROK himself. Love this.