But still, the mood that the album creates is difficult to get a handle on, let alone describe. Opener “The Times” is a case in point: a sleazy ballad sung by Battant vocalist Chloé, it uses reversed sounds that phase in and out and oddly tuned guitars to create a sense of shifting unease, it’s not until the honky-tonk piano kicks in after two minutes that all the disparate elements suddenly lock together in an explosion of slightly uncanny elation. There is also an undoubted influence of rockabilly in this record, perhaps most apparent in “God Will Break It All”, where the vocals are provided by Poni Hoax’s Nicolas Ker. Away from his regular band’s Devo-esque synths, his new wave croon becomes more of a growl, and the sound of early punk makes itself more clear, as the slightly weird territory between 60s garage rock and 70s punk that The Cramps occupied is evoked as he screams over thrashing guitars. However, Land Of Truth is not just an album of noisy garage punk, its influences are wide ranging. The disco bassline of “Crackboy” is probably the closest the album gets to something danceable, while “Dogs On Trial”, with its squelchy bassline, piano stabs and drum machine beats sounds like a strange kind of house music. The last track, “The Edge”, with its heavy echo on the vocals, has elements of the pastoral folk which has made Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver so massively popular.

Despite the influences in this album being wide, in Land Of Truth, Krikor manages to create a sound which is is united and coherent throughout. And like his close peer Joakim does successfully with his albums, he manages to be wildly experimental and alienating, and somehow create a pop record all at the same time. The thing that really sticks with you after you’ve listened to this album though, is the sense of a fiction being created; not just a story but an entire sonic world that only The Dead Hillbillies exist within. In this interview with Ponystep, Krikor is asked who the Dead Hillbillies are and who they represent; his answer is that “I needed time to learn the most I could then forget all about it, letting everything go. The Dead Hillbillies are my alter egos, I embraced them then I had to kill them”. This extends to live performances, where he plays everything himself (without a laptop, and with pedals, bass, drum machine). When understood like this, Land Of Truth takes on a new meaning, it is an example of an album as a kind of parallel universe, a bleak world of sonic introspection that does not, and will never exist in the real world.

Download:> Krikor & The Dead Hillbillies – Dogs On Trial

Land Of Truth is out now on Tigersushi

Buy the LP from Juno

Joakim’s Tigersushi label has a history for releasing music of a challenging nature, but DyE’s Imperator EP occupies a whole other realm. It’s a strange record; it’s short running time (about 15 minutes over five tracks) leaves you expecting more, but the myriad of nuances and ever shifting moods create a listening experience which is much fuller than the EP’s length belies.

The opening track, “Imperator” begins with the kind of trademark Gallic analog synths which often characterise much of Tigersushi’s roster, but after only a few seconds it launches into a full drum machine assault, dropping heavily compressed beats which combine to create the sound of Principles Of Geometry jamming with Mr Oizo. It’s syncopated rhythm sounds something like dubstep, but with a singularly bleak atmosphere; it has almost no melodic element apart from a solitary synth which never resolves itself, hanging in space. “Star Vac” which follows it is soothing by comparison, starting with a cleansing analog wash and a much simpler 4/4 beat. It may start out sedate, but its narcotic nature is doubled half way through when the tempo slows, and the whole thing takes on the form of a twisted sci-fi instrumental lullaby.

“Neige 606″ is the only track on the record which you could say is straight up dance music; it’s a simple acid house affair, but its flanged rhythms give it a futuristic sheen which compliment the other tracks perfectly. After the short interlude “Dark White”, the EP closes with “Hye This Is Michael Jackson”, a track that probably would have been considered bad taste had it been released after his death, primarily because it doesn’t eulogise him. Rather, the odd nature of the music and speech together reflect what a strange character he had become. Mainly though, the inclusion of his voice on this EP only serves to highlight (despite the relatively concise nature of the tracks on offer), how far removed from pop music any of this completely alien record is, almost as if DyE is intentionally positioning himself against it, which in his case, proves to be no bad thing.

Download audio file (DyE – Star Vac.mp3)