HUGO RACE/HELIXED IN BRIEF
Photo of the Merola Matrix, live performance at the CCC, Venezia, Italia 2008 with Luca Recupero, Emiliano Cinquerui, Orazio Arena
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Hugo Race is a prolific and visionary performer, musician, writer and producer from Melbourne, Australia. Hugo defies any easy label and has staked out a creative territory totally his own between rock, experimental and psychedelia. He also writes screenplays and non-fiction.
First introduced to the international stage as a founding member of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds (he appears on the debut, “From Her to Eternity”, and features on several other Bad Seed’s cds and various compilations), Hugo then founded the seminal Australian art-punk cult band The Wreckery (1985), released through the White/Hot, Rampant, Citadel and Normal labels. A Wreckery compilation,”Past Imperfect”, was released in 2008 through Memorandum/Fuse Records, (Sydney ) and a national reunion tour followed.
In early 1989 Hugo moved base to Berlin, and Normal Records (Germany) released his debut solo album “Rue Morgue Blues” as the Wall fell, a fact reflected in Hugo’s frequently politically-inspired lyrics. So began two decades based in Europe and the production of 13 Hugo Race & True Spirit albums, the latest of which “53rd State” was released in Australia (Spooky Records) and Europe (Glitterhouse Records) in 2008 to rave reviews.
Currently, Hugo is immersed in preproduction for his feature film project "We Create Tomorrow"......
Some of Hugo’s other music projects include:
Dirtmusic together with Chris Eckman (The Walkabouts) and Chris Brokaw (Come, Codeine), with whom Hugo performed recently at the Festival au Desert in Mali, Africa, later returning to Mali to record the Dirtmusic album BKO with Tuareg band Tamikrest - release date April 19, 2010 (Glitterhouse Records)
Hugo recently recorded with the the Denver (USA) based band Lilium, together with Pascal Humbert (Woven Hand, 16 Horsepower) - their collaboration 'FELT', will be released by Glitterhouse Records in May 2010
the Italian experimental pop of Sepiatone with Marta Collica (John Parish band), now licensed to Minty Fresh Records, Chicago (www.sepiatone.net);
the rogue electronica of Rogall’s Electric Circus Sideshow, together with DJ Stefan Rogall from Berlin’s Sonar Kollectiv (Perfect Toy Records);
the ambient electronica of Transfargo, together with Swiss DJ Dimitri de Perrot (RecRec Records);
the conceptual Italian multimedia montage of “Merola Matrix” (Desvelos Records)
Other productions and collaborations include:
Hellhound Brown, Pantaleimon, Klimek, Mick Harvey (Bad Seeds), Robert Forster (Go-Betweens), Rowland S. Howard (Birthday Party), Nikki Sudden (Swell Maps), John Parish (PJ Harvey), Max Sharam, Afterhours, Cesare Basile, Giovanni Ferrario (PJ Harvey), Soteria Bell, Feldmann, Lo.Mo, Alexander Hacke (Einstuerzende Neubauten), Delavega and many, many others. (In fact, there are too many collaborations to mention here and we suggest you refer instead to the discography)
In addition, Hugo has acted, scored and written for several feature films (Ghosts of the Civil Dead, Forbidden Lies, Queen of the Damned, Dogs in Space, In Too Deep, etc.), sung avant-guard contemporary experimental music at the Sydney Opera House (The Hanging of Jean Lee), had his writings published in magazines such as Australia's Overland literary journal and composed and acted for the theatre.
“Urban dreamscapes… elegant trip-hop… ambient noise psychedelia… raw cosmic blues… live garage rock… cinematic melancholia, new wave nostalgia, essential songwriting, post-rock minimalism…” – all these descriptions have been applied to Hugo’s work, best summarised as:
“Hugo Race is a psychedelic prophet, a 360 degree artist who makes compromises with nobody.” (Debaser, Italy, 2005)
“Both alone with a guitar or with his True Spirit, Hugo has toured Europe repeatedly, performing on a vast trajectory from the UK to Greece and was literally one of the first western “underground” acts performing inside the ex- eastern bloc European territories after the fall of the Wall. He has followed a personal musical vision in a series of mutating line-ups that have fused the boundaries between the "primal" (roots) blues and raw electronica - described by London Sounds as "night music of the soul", and by Melody Maker as "industrial-trance-blues". “ (Ludger Kordt, KGB, Germany)
“The stripped to the bone sound of the True Spirit exercises a fascination not exactly reassuring, yet magnetic in its evocation of obscure dangers. Music from the wild side of the street – or better, like walking blind in a war-zone…” (- Gianluca Testani, Mucchio Selvaggio)
Hugo Race
Helixed Productions