Athens Georgia native Killick Erik Hinds is best known for playing a very unorthodox instrument, the H'arpeggione. This upright acoustic instrument that he devised has eighteen strings which can be plucked, bowed, rubbed and scraped. He has coined this instrument "the devil's cello" and calls his music Applachian Trance Metal, so with each release that he puts out on his own Solponticello label you can expect a wild ride every time.
His latest endeavor cleverly titled Killick! The Amplifucker (the title in his words refers to "creativity in a post-electricity age" and "the ambiguity between acoustic and electric") is eighteen songs (coincidence?) of pretty far out music, if you want to call this music that is. Featuring nothing more than the man himself on this unique sounding instrument, Hinds who recorded these compositions live with no overdubs, alternates between quiet passages that are at times barely audible to moments of all out intensity. The real question for the listener is if they'll be able to handle sitting through all forty two minutes of what basically amounts to an extremely lengthy one sided musical dialogue that forgoes anything resembling a melody. I admit that Hinds at times does get some intriguing sounds out of his instrument, especially when it sounds almost like a sitar, but too much of Killick! The Amplifucker just sounds like incessant noodling. The endless scratching and rubbing of the strings gets irritating very fast. I think the Hinds' music would be better served if he were to add a few other instruments into the mix. The results would not only be more interesting but it would probably allow for a little more variation as well.
Killick! The Amplifucker definitely leans firmly towards the abstract or avant-garde and normally I enjoy music that isn't afraid to wander off into dangerous musical territory. Unfortunately though this isn't something I'd reach for again anytime in the near future. To get a better idea of just how well Hinds and his instrument sound in a collaborative situation I'd strongly recommend seeking out the excellent A.S.A.P. Wings record that he was a part of with Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner, aka The Shaking Ray Levis.
Track Listing
1) Destroy Erase Inprov
2) Beautifficult
3) Immense True Ration
4) Accept we have three fingers, and were green
5) Her dog was grr at me
6) Together We Make Deference
7) The Fighting's So Vicious 'Cause The Steaks Are So Delicious
8) Heidy Banegas!
9) Ungoing
10) Symbol Grab
11) We're Ready For The Real Farfisa
12) Ten Gallon Hate
13) Not A Could In the Sky
14) Hellmonk
15) Tableau To The Ego
16) Mouthbereaver
17) Stereo Diabolical Hems
18) Mono Maniacal Haws
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