(Modern Creative / Electronica) Strønen / Storløkken - Humcrush - 2004, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

”Humcrush” is an album that could only have come from the Norwegian nujazz scene, with precedents including the more disturbing textures of Supersilent, the groove-centric work of artists including Bugge Wesseltoft, and the more atmospheric sounds of Eivind Aarset. But equally there is a lineage to Joe Zawinul and especially ”Sextant” and ”Crossings”-era Herbie Hancock. Still, Strønen and Storløkken manage to take these varied influences and create a melange that, with a determination and sense of resolve, demonstrates how music can work on many levels, sometimes demanding complete attention and other times able to blend seamlessly into the background. It is the sense of pulling ideas out of the ether and developing them into miniature pieces with an inner logic and sense of continuity that makes these nine improvisations so compelling.
~ Allaboutjazz
Impressive and fun: two words that sum up this first album from Thomas Strønen and Ståle Storløkken. Here are two great musicians who are often taken for granted. Strønen's drumming is one of Food's most defining elements, but fans are keener to point out Iain Ballamy's playing. The same applies to Storløkken's keyboard work in Supersilent}, often overshadowed by Arve Henriksen's trumpet or Helge Sten's treatments. Humcrush sets the record straight on both counts with nine short, punchy, jabbing pieces (seven duets and two solo tracks). Inventive, bombastically joyful, and unlike anything either Food or Supersilent have recorded (although it veers closer to the latter).
~ All Music Guide
This exceptional debut release from Food drummer Thomas Strønen and Supersilent keyboardist Ståle Storløkken is a most welcome addition to the Rune Grammofon catalogue. Thomas Strønen (born 72) has studied music and composition. He is a regular member of several bands, most notably Food, Maria Kannegaard Trio and Parish, the quartet led by Swedish ace pianist Bobo Stenson. As is the case for most Norwegian jazz musicians of his generation he has played with just about everybody and been a frequent performer at the Norwegian and European festival circuit for several years. Ståle Storløkken is a founder member of Supersilent, Terje Rypdal´s Skywards and jazzrock quartet Cucumber but was first noticed with freeform trio Veslefrekk with fellow Supersilent members Arve Henriksen and Jarle Vespestad. This group was formed as a result of meeting at the 'jazz academy' in Trondheim, breeding ground for a whole generation of young players in Norway. He is probably the most interesting and adventurous electric keyboard player operating on the Norwegian scene at the moment. Being raised on Joe Zawinul and Herbie Hancock, he has developed a style and a personal signature that is uniquely his own, heard to great effect on stage and on record with Supersilent. And of course on Humcrush. Humcrush is a set of improvisations recorded live in the studio, believe it or not we might add, as they more often sound like meticulously composed and programmed pieces of music.
~ Jazzloft
Despite their seemingly huge critical following, I've never been able to get into Supersilent as much as some people. There's something about their almost completely austere sounds that have never invited me in fully, and while I can appreciate some of their work, much of their output leaves me scratching my head. Humcrush is the collaborative project of the drummer of Food (as well as several other groups) Thomas Strønen and Supersilent (as well as other groups) keyboardist Ståle Storløkken. A set of pieces improvised and recorded in studio, the release is a smoking piece of futuristic electro-jazz, mixing hyper electronics, bleats of analogue keyboards, and skittering live drums to great effect.
"Acrobat" opens the release and sets the tone as rolling electronics mingle with snare pops cymbal smashes before the track tiptoes with some high-end synth and ticky percussion before low-end blasts pump and the track sort of falls together into a slightly funky piece that brings together unique pieces from both organic and electronic worlds. "Sport 'N Spice" takes similar elements and hones everything to an even sharper point as quick bursts of electronics create a polyrhythm with scattered percussive shots and growling keyboards and noise create a haze over the frenetic dual.
Despite being improvised, one of the great things about the duo is that they seem to instinctively know when things should be layered and when they should allow things to breathe more. On "Dance!," more heavy low-end mixes with rubber-limbed drumming and sharp bursts of keyboards while "Spectral Rock" allows individual hits to decay on their own and each percussive and keyboard stab trails off into almost nothing before building into a track that feels like Supersilent gone horror soundtrack for a B-movie (but not in a bad way).
Overall, there's a nice mixture of both quiet (although sometimes trying) and more upbeat material on Humcrush. "Pusher" is an absolutely hammering track that blends aggressive electronics with filtered and live drums and squealing keyboards into a rather attention-hogging mix. If you've listened to Supersilent before, you'll definitely recognize the sonics of Ståle Storløkken in this mix, but he seems to be having a bit more fun here, as if their aren't as many restraints. Although not all of the tracks feel full-formed, there's still a vibrance and energy on Humcrush that's hard to deny. In forty minutes, the young duo push out some seriously unique (and sometimes downright fun) music.
~ Almostcool
Ståle Storløkken (one third of noise/jazz behemoth Supersilent) and Thomas Strønen are taking the Humcrush project to brilliant places I’m not even sure I can describe. While it’s hard to tell how much of this is scripted and how much is free improvisation, the palettes they’re employing make this stuff endlessly enjoyable, but even more rewarding is just how vital and original it all sounds, which I kind of hate myself for just typing, but that’s the kind of record this is. Essentially pitting Storløkken’s keys against Strønen’s percussion and electronics, Hornswoggle has the duo exploring the approach of free improvisation without the usual corollary harshness, but also they’re investing some funk into the Rune Grammofon sound, adapting the bleeps and squiggles of Autechre and Oval into rocking little numbers that bounce and thump with the best club jams. Which isn’t quite to say that people will be dancing to this, but injecting a little joy into the Rune Grammofon (or, if you want, Supersilent) formula has resulted in something…not better, but just as awesome, and probably less tethered in precedent, which is amazing enough.
More amazing, though, is how Humcrush proves that creating a sound doesn’t mean creating an album that is eight different versions of the same idea. Like the best free improvisationists, the two musicians employ their instrumentation in the service of different ideas rather than employing an idea as a rallying point for instrumentation, and in doing so are squirming out the other end with a new musical language. If that seems like splitting hairs, listen to “Cyborg I” and “Cyborg II,” bookends to this disc that don’t simply resolve themselves against one another in a bit of Tweedledee/Tweedledum shadowboxing. The former, which draws Hornswoggle to a breathtaking close, has Strønen puttering on skittish riffs that grow in intensity not because he’s hitting things harder, but because he’s filling in space. Storløkken plays it quiet, adding fragmentary melodies and sighing synth heaves throughout. In contrast, “Cyborg II,” the album’s mission statement, has the drummer employing a spate of odd noises to create fairly straight-forward beats, but the way those acoustic and electric sounds bounce off one another gives the whole track a weightless, propulsive feel. When Storløkken starts adding heavy synth lines and neurotic lead melodies over top, the whole thing hums with energy; Strønen settles into an easy beat but claps on wood blocks and ringing knocks on the center of his cymbals that accentuate the electronic sounds underneath. The bass gets really funky, and even though the backing is the same as “Cyborg I” (a looped one-chord synth breath) the song has a completely different character.
“Hornswoggle” ups the ante; Strønen goes completely nuts while Storløkken hammers riffs stolen from a Mothers of Invention live show in the late ‘60s. The interlocking synth lines collapse upon themselves, and since Strønen is playing a real drum kit on the track, his lines mostly just recoil from Storløkken’s weaving, often stuttering in time or straying off the path to hit a jazz riff. The players have an excellent sense of one another; they pull of breaks and pauses with dexterity; they launch into a midsection of programming and heaving high-pitched synths before re-massing into one of the greatest (albeit very short) synth solos this year. “Anamorphic Images” is slower, but the production on the percussion allows it to convey the trickery of depth and sight the title suggests. It’s a headphones song, totally, since the components of Strønen’s textures leap from all over the channels. The melody is hilariously cute, a lullaby that would frighten most children, but even more than the tracks where he’s going nuts on patches, Storløkken’s restraint and his ability to constantly modify the emphasis and in-betweens of the riff creates a fascinating mood, especially when both musicians leap into a ferocious mid-section, again intense without being harsh, Strønen hitting stray snare licks that make holes in his partner’s riffage. “Knucker” -- a collapsing house of cards described by music -- also benefits from the production; the band lets their Allien-jazz spiral out of control, but all the right drumbeats are accentuated with velocity to keep the thing on point.
“Seersucker” is Humcrush’s micro-house, revolving over a steady bass synth as the drums flit crazily but always end with this squeaky “zwee zwee.” The melodies over top are run through different patches and employ Middle East-ish scales, but they do so with a severity that recalls a presidential inauguration, all eagle swoops and salutes and reverent faces. I can’t quite tell if those are the intended semiotics, but there is something needlessly stern and ironic about the whole track which makes it absolutely engrossing, and that “zwee zwee” is just constantly and purposefully deflating the gravitas. I love it. Especially since it’s followed by “Grok,” the most spastic track on the album and the closest to what an actual “humcrush” may sound like, in the sense that any rhythm is constantly choked by rests. The players do a marvelous job of hitting their tense points in sync, engaging in mini-prog syncopations while random percussion continues overtop. The track ends with a bass/percussion duel that sounds like a Stevie Wonder record remixed by Nurse With Wound or Suicide or something. And I’m not saying I know what that should sound like, but if this is it, let’s get that project on the go.
I don’t know what this album might inspire given how dense it is (which is the only real drawback here; it’s just idea after idea with no space to settle down), but like most albums that evolve genres right off the edge of a cliff, the simple fact of it alone is enough to make this thing important. It certainly rates Strønen as a fascinating percussionist since, even on “Roo” where his involvement is essentially relegated to snare rolls, he’s changing up the sound, not simply creating a trope percussive mood but playing around with it. Storløkken is also a master of textures, and while I sometimes don’t like the pure digital-ness of his chosen patches, his sense of melody in improvisation is stellar, and it is his joy that infects the album, drowning Strønen’s drumming in a sea of quirky melodies that sound delicious whether he’s tossing them from a distance or locked into the rhythm. Just fucking brilliant.
~ Mark Abraham

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 9. July 2008, 23:41
Strønen/Storløkken / Humcrush
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