The Gerogerigegege – Hell Driver

1999 • Dirtier Promotions

The Gerogerigegege is one of those bands that I tell myself I enjoy but is totally hit-or-miss: they can pull off some brilliant albums like Tokyo Anal Dynamite or Senzuri Champion, but sometimes their exercises in self-indulgence can completely flop. Hell Driver is one case which doesn't do anything for me; while it may have good intentions, it winds up being a complete meandering borefest when it's not trying to destroy my ears.

Don't get me wrong; I love listening to field recordings just as much as the next guy, and this band has put out some really nice stuff of its own (again, see Senzuri Champion). But field recordings have to be put to good use to make a good record, and here it all falls short. Take the title track, for example: it's fifteen minutes of wandering (perhaps improvised piano). Now, one could argue that this piece has a very marked atmosphere, one of solidarity, loneliness, agoraphobia, etc., and I can understand that. But to me, the track is simply boring. If it were half as long, I can see it maybe working, but I guess I lost interest in the track too quickly.

But the album's biggest flaw is its monstrous middle track "Moonlight & His Loser Knife"—thirty-five minutes of the most annoying buzzing noise I've ever heard. Even if the other four tracks were brilliant (they're not) this one ruins the entire album. Yes, it does have some semi-interesting snippets of clangings and voices in the background, but the buzzing is so grating that it's impossible to even think about what else is going on. I honestly cannot imagine why they thought this was good (then again, it is The Gerogerigegege; they've always had questionable motives and tastes). Perhaps they wanted to create a despairing and frustrated mood, in which case, congratulations.

The other tracks are mostly non-noteworthy, being more bland field recordings and grating noises that simply don't sound interesting and go nowhere. "Night Is Morning" is practically silent; "Pray Silently" is the same annoying scraping noise for seven minutes that almost redeems itself with some neat noise in the last few seconds; if only it had actually gone in that direction. The first track "_____" is the only enjoyable part of the album, being an unadorned clip of voices and city sounds; if more of the album were like it this review would be completely different. But it's a misleading opener.

My frustration with Hell Driver might partially have to do with the fact that I know The Gerogerigegege have done so much better with similar styles and this one simply sounds like a cheap knockoff of their better material. Some hardcore fans of the group will probably find value in this album, but I'm not into such musical masochism and I don't see it as anything except an irritating exercise in pointlessness. Fortunately, they have better material, and I'll stick to that instead.

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