Sometimes reissues deliver more or less what we expect, despite the fact they may be obscure and unheard. Ocassionally though, what emerges is something totally alien and this Hypnosaurus retrospective on the Estonian Porridge Bullet belongs in the latter category. 1991-1992 is deep, mindsweeping and intense, but I don’t even know how to hold it, how to classify it (and to be frank, I really don’t care). The compilation covers the early days of the Hypnosaurus duo formed of Aivar Tõnso and Railo Pals, who sealed their union by way of John Peel listening sessions but whose vision evidently stretched beyond anything they were hearing. The whole thing hinges on some drums, some effects and a Polivox, a powerful and highly ghosted nay downright uncontrollable Russian synth. By some strange coincidence, Peel actually saw one of the duo’s earliest gigs – have a look at this interview on Eastern Daze for more.
The Polivox is at the heart of this record, as the Porridge Bullet blurb reads: “feedback and glitches took over and the music developed into uncharted territory”. But maybe the Polivox was just a perfect, fortunate match for a musical imagination that was itself full of glitches and feedback, that ricocheted in a thousand directions, full of buzzy enthusiasm and fuzzy aesthetics – the best thing about this record is that there is never the shadow of a formula around, never a default, never a pre-trodden route. Highlights are “Peipsi Delfiinidele”, a sort of swarming drone with a jagged comet of a synthline escaping from its limits, “Päike Tõuseb idast” and “Langeb tähti sülle”, which perform a sort of brutal, ragged EBM, or the serpentine flutterings of “Laiküla uduvalgus’s”. All of it ideal for a small rave amongst friends in solitary working countryside.
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