Hipstor Smith – WAVE (2014)

This time I’m going to review an EP which also wasn’t a Concern Void release, but 3 tracks from it had appeared on our releases before, so it’s going to be fair enough to observe it.

Hipstor Smith is quite popular underground musician from Moscow, and by “popular” I mean the fact that he played a lot of gigs, much more than any other Concern Void collaborator, I believe. He’s a member of several bands, and he also has his web-community (see link below), which, by the way, doesn’t consider us friendly – probably, we’re not cool enough for them – despite the fact Hipstor Smith is my long-time friend and frequent Shadowplay City contributor.

Bands Hipstor Smith was (is) involved in, release(d) DIY-tapes and some merchandize, got some acclaim, as well as Hipstor Smith’s solo stuff – he even confessed he presented his record to Steven Stapleton himself, and Steven liked it. So, that’s a big deal, serious music, not passing time, fellas.

Hipstor Smith plays (post-)industrial, sometimes ambient music, which is sort of different from his bands’ activities, which are more avant-garde, free improv, chaotic (cleverly to say, less disciplined / organized, or just “done-for-fun”) stuff. He started his career in 2012, one of his first appearances was on our annual sampler “Superfluous Music”, and his first album was released in 2013.

Some of samplers’ tracks appeared on his tape “Girlfriend in a Nuthouse” (2013), and later ones appeared on “WAVE”. The title track, “Get Me”, as well as “Radio Storm”, firstly was put on a split “Die flux Zeit” with Nervoese Leute, and “Spacedoctorstation” appeared earlier that spring on our annual sampler “We Could Have Been Martians”.

Hipstor Smith declares “lyrics’ sounding > lyrics’ meaning”, so I’m not going to analyze it, respecting his point of view. Moreover, I have to confess, I couldn’t recognize all the words :)

But “Get Me” and “Spacedoctorstation” are indeed classy tracks with actually professional quality of sound. “Radio Storm” is little bit different: Hipstor Smith plays real rain stick on it, which makes the sound wholesome authentic; Russian-speaking listeners could admit that samples of a weather forecast were taken from Russian NTV channel, known for its provocative and “tabloid” style.

I was lucky enough to visit one of Hipstor Smith’s band gig, and I can say they deserve that underground fame, in comparison with other bands playing that evening, they were way ahead. So check out this EP, I guess it’s worth your attention, too :)

Have a listen / download for free from BandCamp:

Contact Hipstor Smith

(you may need to sign up)

Sincerely yours,

John “Grey Lenses” Grey