Hills - s/t
(Sulatron Records 2010, st1002)
Hills - s/t
(Sulatron Records 2010, st1002)
From Aural Innovations #42 (May 2011)
From Goteborg Sweden this is the CD release of the Hills 2008 debut album with two bonus tracks. DEATH: Of all the bands I've reviewed this round, Hills are by far the most interesting. Cool simple driving space rock, tastefully done!! Thank you Goddess, a breath of fresh aire!!! Trippy pre-recorded female vocals, some mysterious flute, so far; all the things I like, it's prolly been done a thousand times but still sounds fresh and relevant. The eternal quest for eternal now!! ISTIKLAL STREET: I didn't know they were doin' this sorta thing in Austria (oh, it's the label that's from Austria?!) maybe my buddies the Primordial Undermind are rubbing off on them?!? The deep space track that comes back into some good ol' 1969 rawk!! More and more inspirational loveliness. YOU TALK THE TALK: And Hills walks the walk... oh, another band doing the Neu hypno beat, can't go wrong with that!!! Even the overdubs sound like Neu, but I'm not complaining... it's a good thing hardly anyone knows about Neu because this is a dead on imitation. RAINSHIP (SOLREGN): The water intro, some nice janglin' and zanglin'... the uptempo number and it's good and long like I lik'em! At 9:31 It's just getting better and badder... set the controls for the heart of the sun... goodness, this kicks up quite the beautiful ruckus. EX OBLIVIONE: The strange/ trippy track.... very 60's vocal and sound on this one... like a soundtrack to a spaghetti western.... fades out just when it's getting good. SCHLARAFFENLAND: Back to the Neu (great 70's German band) beat. Is this a cover?! Doesn't say it is but the song title seems very familiar! At 3:03 its rockin' like there's no tomorrow... another nice long track.... also sounds very similar to Creedence Clearwater Revival Suzie Q intro drumbeat. MESSIAS: More badass space rock, mid-tempo grooovaciousness. Some really nice guitar and quite the wall of sound... the short track and it's over.
For more info, visit: http://www.myspace.com/hhillss and http://www.sulatron.com
Reviewed by Carlton Crutcher