Hype Williams – Find Out What Happens when People Stop Being Polite and Start Getting Reel (De Stijl, 06/12/10)
Some people would say that the likes of Jack White or Thom Yorke are mysterious. I can see what they’re getting at: what could Jack be thinking of when he gets that far-off glint in his eye? Hype Williams is mysterious in a whole other way. Hype Williams is mysterious in the way that I have absolutely no idea who they are. Even that fountain of knowledge Wikipedia is of no use. The digital age has not as of yet caught up with this weird, futuristic, ambient, electro outfit.
Whoever they are, they have a sense of humour. Find Out opens with a gurgling, auto-tune adjusted wail. As if this wasn’t bizarre enough, it’s followed by a dead-pan, monotone recital of pokemon, followed by “gotta catch ‘em all, gotta catch ‘em all, yeah, pokemon, I want to be the best there ever was.”
The tragedy of this album is it never quite lives up to this early, weird, tongue-in-cheek promise. The Throning is probably the stand out track, and a particularly interesting cacophony of beats and melodies is developed on Jesus To A Child Reprise. Their sound is comparable to Nosaj Thing, like a weird distant cousin of Mount Kimbie. Unfortunately, much of the album is a little empty, as though they’ve stayed true to their minimalist style at the expensive of excluding a few of their highly original ideas. This album isn’t for everyone, but if you do happen to enjoy music of a slightly less coventional nature, there are few albums better than this that you could put on your Christmas wish list.
