A review of Hervé's "The Art of Disappearing"

Yet another Totnes purchase; Chris and I heard the first track being played over the sound system in Drift and added this to the stack. Aside from the music itself, we also liked saying Hervé*...try it...Hervé...Heeeervé...good.

Pretty much everything on The Art of Disappearing feels open and big and humid; a summer scene viewed through a steaming dew drop. It also all reminds me of Clams Casino's amazing 2011 EP, Rainforest...like...a whole lot...a real whole lot.

After repeat listenings though, things get less and less impressive. The vocals on "Lose Control" are almost silly, but not quite. Definitely cheesy though and probably would have been better without vocals.
Or if I had been having sex while on drugs.
Yeah.
Either one of those.
The fourth track, "Gold" (featuring vocals from Maria Minerva) works very well though. It has this great, sleepy energy that reminds me of the last track off Tweaker's 2 a.m. wakeup call, "Crude Sunlight".
"Mountains" is pretty much just a mash up of Clams Casino and the theme from Halloween. Creepy, but laid back in a jungle funk sort of way.**
The vocals on the next track, "Save Me", did NOT work.
Ugh. I almost skipped this, but that wouldn't have been fair to Herve...or me...or you.
"Red Tractor" has some nice chords, but, nothing really galvanizing about it.
And, finally, while the vocal treatment on the last track, "Mother Protect", has some cool stuff going on, the rest of it kind of doesn't. It starts off sounding out of sync with itself but then finds its own groove. Etc.

Almost everything on this is like an ocean or a swamp, complete with animals to match the surroundings; very visual.
Another plus is that none of the songs overstay their welcome, they present themselves, do what they've got to do, and then evaporate, heat shimmer.
There's some nice programming and some interesting textures, but there always seems to be something missing, and, whatever it is, it's the thing that would have made this a good album as opposed to an okay album. As it is, it's worth a listen or two, but not for more than that.
Put this on in the background when you have drug sex while floating in the ocean and getting a sunburn.
Or don't.
I really don't care.
Honestly, this just makes me want to bug Clams Casino about putting out his LP.





* Pronounced "hurve".

** Don't front, you know exactly what I mean.