Husten – Let's Kill Television

February 11, 2011 • self-released

Plunderphonics is still a relatively foreign technique to me, but a lot of what I've heard of it so far has been pretty impressive. Husten has clearly been busy honing his craft lately, and Let's Kill Television has a pretty tight and consistent sound compared to debut Auszeit. While it's not perfect the whole way through, it definitely has its high points that make it worthy of a listen or two.

The forumla is quite straightforward: most songs are a simple downtempo drum beat and bass line, accompanied by various vocal and instrumental samples. Almost all of the instrumental samples sound great too: "Heyeah" has a really nice piano line, "Igor Eat Meat" has a very pretty combination of folky guitar and keyboard, etc. The vocal samples are hit-or-miss; I really like the cut-up dialog in "So Much Time" and the call-and-response in "Heyeah" isn't bad either, if a bit cheesy. On the other hand, some don't sit well with me at all, like the George Carlin sample in "I'm a Happy Guy" (it doesn't help that I don't really like Carlin to begin with, so I can't blame Husten much), or the weird dissonant singing in "When You're in Love".

On the other hand, sometimes everything clicks beautifully. The album's highlight "Then It Seems" integrates some soulful pop singing into a very ethereal beat, which clicks perfectly. It reminds me of Burial quite a bit as well. And "Ponzo Illusion" has what sounds like a Notorious B.I.G. rap throughout, which is pretty awesome on top of an already-good beat.

The song quality isn't particularly consistent, and to me it seems like the end of the album is pretty weak compared to the beginning. (But again plunderphonics isn't something I'm an expert on, so perhaps listening to it as one cohesive work isn't the way to about it.) Regardless, Let's Kill Television is full of cool ideas that are executed well—and let's face it, where else are you going to hear some hardcore rapping and throat singing on back-to-back tracks? (And if you do know where, let me know, because that's neat.)