WOEBOT

HASSLE HOUND
LIMELIGHT CORDIAL
STAUBGOLD

Hassle Hound are a makeshift trio of journeymen, one Pole with a background in New York Improv, and a painter and radio producer based in Glasgow. “Limelight Cordial” is, unsurprisingly given the geographical and occupational tangents they convene from, at times an ill-fitting collage of elements.

The central raft of the Hassle Hound sound is a wood-shed detente between hick folk instrumentation and the usual artillery of electronica. Jew’s harp and banjo duel with loops, samples and patches. Sometimes as on “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”, “The Farce of Dusty Knee” or “Hazel” the results are sublime and unexpected. One can afford to delight in their unusual sonic concoctions. Mandolins cavort, violins spool, samples chatter and 808s clop. Unfortunately quite often the mismatch is jarring, “Star Lantern and Two Mice”, “Tahtian Sideshow” and “Poppy Bush” all strain the equation, victims of a vainglorious eclecticism. If these elements aren’t cohering in the name of musicality, then what is inspiring their fusion? The most pointed folktronica connects with the intimacy and suffrage of traditional music. Where the form attempts to enter into folk’s queasy spirit of mirth, the results can be embarrassing.

Hassle Hound don’t seem to offer any pointers as to why they’ve chosen to engineer this particular collision, historical or otherwise and touches like the painfully thin vocals on “White Roads” and the inclusion of tracks like “The Night of the Great Season”, an uncharacteristic cheesy pile-up of Italian Soundtrack strings and snatches of spoken-word comedy further undermine their project. It’s a shame because there are some lovely moments on “Limelight Cordial”. Perhaps with more time invested together in this project a true synthesis will occur.