Florence, Italy's Herva has a great album in him. Unfortunately, Hyper Flux isn't it. It's far from a bad disc — indeed, there are good ideas all over these 12 tracks — but the work is difficult to connect with emotionally. It lacks an identity.
That could simply be a function of how many different things are going on here. There's no shortage of creativity on Herva's part; Hyper Flux starts strong with a warm, glitchy piece entitled "Esoteric Energy" that sets a high bar for the remainder of the album. But tracks two and three, "Jitter" and "Nasty MF," fall right off. This is run of the mill industrial fare, not appreciably advanced from the prime of Front 242 and Mark Stewart. Too much of what follows is similarly uninspired.
Still, there's something here worth paying attention to. Tracks like "Solar Xub" and "Meta Wave" show off a competence with electronic sounds that could develop into genuinely compelling work. Herva also incorporates acoustic string and percussion instruments (some of them his father's design) to great post-rock effect.
But just as soon as "Meta Wave" starts to carry you away, the juvenile and grating "Cops Twerk" drags you crashing back to Earth. Herva remains a promising artist, but Hyper Flux is just for the completists.
(Planet Mu)That could simply be a function of how many different things are going on here. There's no shortage of creativity on Herva's part; Hyper Flux starts strong with a warm, glitchy piece entitled "Esoteric Energy" that sets a high bar for the remainder of the album. But tracks two and three, "Jitter" and "Nasty MF," fall right off. This is run of the mill industrial fare, not appreciably advanced from the prime of Front 242 and Mark Stewart. Too much of what follows is similarly uninspired.
Still, there's something here worth paying attention to. Tracks like "Solar Xub" and "Meta Wave" show off a competence with electronic sounds that could develop into genuinely compelling work. Herva also incorporates acoustic string and percussion instruments (some of them his father's design) to great post-rock effect.
But just as soon as "Meta Wave" starts to carry you away, the juvenile and grating "Cops Twerk" drags you crashing back to Earth. Herva remains a promising artist, but Hyper Flux is just for the completists.