Drum and Bass. No not Goldie and Inner City Life. I am just naming the instruments of destruction used by Beehoover from Deutschland.
Claus Peter Hamisch and Ingmar Petersen produce a marvellous cacophony via Exile on Mainstream Records and have named the beast “The Devil and His Footman”.
Listening to it I have to keep reminding myself that they are only a two piece. The duo weave intricate textures using their rhythm section chops which never over stay their welcome.
Opener Monolith is a doom laden fuzzed up ….well Monolith of a track will certainly open up the ears of any more traditional metal fans taking a punt on these insect botherers. (Apparently the band took its name from an English tv show which depicted someone ridding themselves of a body infestation of bees using a vacuum cleaner – no wonder they are nearly extinct!)
Egoknights and Firearks is fuzzed up and angular as fuck but loses nothing in its progged up psychedelic imagination and the riffs continue throughout. Beehoover are a band that straddle many camps from Doom to Psyche to Stoner with a Dinosaur Junior meets Tool tip as well. None of these influences feel crowbarred in though and the collage works well.
Boy vs Tree (great title) is framed by two interludes which causes it to POP especially when listening in the car. The last minute or so of this track had my head nodding like that annoying Churchill dog. The lyrics throughout are quirky, intelligent and humourous without becoming tooooo much. I didn’t start to feel that I should be wearing oversized glasses and drinking a wheat beer in Hoxton to listen to these guys if ya catch me drift.
I had great hopes for the penultimate track “My Mixtapes Suck Big Time”. I remember with fondness making mix tapes back in the day (ask your folks kids) I even snared my missus with a particularly calculated one. This track was a prog too far for me the drums feel at odds with the bass and if a song is a journey then this one feels like the sat nav is having a seizure. Still the psyche/Doom/Stoner bus stays on track and I eventually arrive at “Honeyhole” (ooh err missus).
At 7 mins this is the longest track on the album, refreshing in an era and a genre that seems to go by the adage more is more and that we must all sit and endure 12 mins of widdle wrapped round a thin idea. Beehoover deliver their gifts in much more succinct fashion and this bookend does not overstay its welcome. This Honeyhole is packed with bass riffs and Voivod esque vocal passages with a syrupy doom undertone throughout.
I am new to the Beehoover camp having heard their name banded about for years. I am glad to have been introduced to them and would recommend open minded lovers of fuzzed up stoner doom to take a plunge in their honeyhole too.
(6.5/10 Matt Mason)
Leave a Reply