Bets Ov, Volume 1

"If the world ended and you climbed out of a bunker in the aftermath, this would be the soundtrack" - Cryptobadger

"MIDI-Eastern music is a nice catch-phrase for this. Some of the samples I recognized, the dance patterns too, I guess I’d call these three wise men (and/or wise guys) from the burgeoning LA Hop-Frog Kollektiv proper Born Djinn Again. Very infectious…Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze has had an amazing (sadly post-mortem) career…but I think the promise of the Hop-Froggers is to mix source/sample material with organic live improvisations, and toss in an intriguing stage show, sprinkle in politics as needed. Or maybe avoid if possible, dodging the exploit versus worship fires, the sounds here are uplifting, even when the titles are maybe more discouraged. Kind of a Genesis P. Orridge stirring of the pot. Personally I LOVE those shrill bagpipes which are air-lifted into several tracks. And who can’t agree with a battle cry of “Cherries (Bananas not Bombs)…” is that an attempt to link the Runaways to Islam? The fruits of these labors are tasty to my ears, and their beats put a positive slam into Islam. The Urckarms race is coming to KFJC at the end of this month for a visit, hopefully they’ll bring a large and varied entourage." - Thurston Hunger KFJC

It's a bit of an odd name, Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, but it's the solo name of one of the founders of the Hop-Frog Kollectiv, also known as E. Loi, and also as Jeremy Morelock. The music he produces solo is like that of the Kollectiv an eclectic mix of various styles thrown together. At the heart there is the true love for all things minimal. Rhythm battle on, vocal chanting, minimal patterns, once stuck in a loop there is no holding back. There is also the ornaments, which can be tabla samples, Moroccan flutes or eastern melodies. Washes of vocals from gypsies, indians or some other corner of the world - this is true One World music. Everything is thrown together like equal partners, and in this pressure cooker, it all becomes music. Of course you could wonder what the people who made it would feel that it can be done like this, but I'm sure Robert Smith of The Cure would raise a smile when he would hear 'M' from 'Seventeen Seconds popping up as sample in 'Another Intricate Gem Of The Mouthfrothian Liberation Front', but perhaps he is used to this sort of this thing. As an old bloke of course my favorite track, but I thought it was throughout a most enjoyable CD save for some passages which were a bit too much Muslimgauze like. (FdW) www.vitalweekly.net

Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional uses most often looped ideas from Middle Eastern North African recordings, mixed with band sounds, with electronic and rather fast laptop controlled rhythms, and some spoken word repetitions, that seem to work like almost political statements for the benefit of a creative world into a North African desert context, taken to a citizen's consciousness. The music is like a new ritual form, devotional-organic, echoed, sandune whirly confronting. I recognise also a hurdy-gurdy drone in the first track, a little fragment from The Cure's Forest album, looped and rearranged to different and faster rhythm drives, with orchestration, nervous Arabian clarinet mixed with middle African singing, and so on. While the opium plant is on the cover, a plant which brought peace to the users, associating also the ancient travel roots from west to east, the music is more aware of all omnipresent diverse elements that don't find a new place into the creative world yet. http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com