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Montessouri

Biography

Nick Hodgson’s lo-fi free-noise recordings from the mid-1990s (when he was still a teenager), with a line-up that included percussionist Kurt Dyer (Hodgson’s bandmate in the Soul-Funk group Solaa), brothers Lynton and Kyle Denovan, Ryan Condon and long-time off-sider Tim Macdonald.

After Urinator broke up I started improvising with lots of various friends who, like me, were outsiders and artists of some description. There were lots of different titles for these projects, all dependent on who was involved, but Montessouri was the most consistent moniker as it was almost like an umbrella title for various different line-ups. I can’t remember one particularly influential album as, like I said, I’m always listening to a lot of new music every day, but I’m sure my location had a lot to do with this gradual shift towards improvised music.

Nick Hodgson. Taken from ‘All My Ideas Are Stolen’, the Union Pole label’s release blog

Montessouri was informed by the various noise an improv groups Hodgson was taking in at the time, mainly A Handful of Dust, Surface of The Earth, Omit and Dead C, and Hodgson began trading his home-produced bedroom recorded cassettes with overseas underground labels like Chocolate Monk, Macronympha, Shrimper and Union Pole.

You’ve got four, fairly lengthy, unnamed tracks here that seem like edited versions of a long sweaty jam.

First (14:02) starts with steely beams, grey throbs.  A scrap yard at dawn, it is hot already, squatters bowing all resonant metallic shards.  The pulse is important…a steady downstroke, a ‘chank’ to counter the riffling thrum that opens up towards the horizon.  The grubby guitars build; both blowsy and concrete, sharp-edged and yet indistinct.  Think messy charcoal sketches.  You can see the contrast between the black marks and white page but the smudges draw you into the grey.  Themes are explored – a repetitive Fall-esque breakdown at the 5 minute mark settles into a (until now) unheard drum, a ritualistic thump, a silvery chain to dreamtime.

Second (6:16) introduces more clanging urgency.  A heatbeat, a pulse; like the Ur-rock of very early Sonic Youth, Dead C or Rinpingo Beesto the elements of ‘rock music’ are simmered into a flat rubbery pancake with steel appendages.  But these players have an ear to the ground for nifty dynamics and the final few minutes play around with shimmering ripples, hammering on the poor prone guitar like spicy gamelan gongs

Third (9:55) follows the Java-root into that no-wave chunk and roiling waves of gritty guitar.  Possibly bass or another guitar and extra drums make a slack appearance halfway through.  I’m reminded of stories I read about The Stooges first performances, Iggy playing feedback on his home made ‘Jim-O-phone’, guitars slung around the gritty basement, the audience covering their ears but widening their eyes.  By the end of this piece everything is fully in the red and blistering.  I bow down to the glorious black rattling.

Four (8:10) is a greasy easement with the bare-bones of a riff chugging.  It moves from sooty muck to springy light; the drums pick up and beat a careful rhythm…it slows…its pauses…it stops. 

(then)

IT EXPLODES INTO FUCKING PIECES, EACH PART LOUDER AND MORE DESTROYED THAN THE NEXT…until a sizzled rattle jitterbugs around the beat, whistles with feedback and keels over.

Taken from ‘All My Ideas Are Stolen’, the Union Pole label’s release blog

As Montessouri, Hodgson released at least 5 cassette’s including ‘Ininityland‘ on the influential US independent Shrimper (home of The Mountain Goats, The Secret Stars, Sentridoh etc) before heading in a free-form jazz direction with CM Ensemble.

Members

Discography

  • Scarlet Fever (Part One) cassette (High Tension House, HTH005)
  • The Default Mode cassette (High Tension House, HTH008)
  • Brass Hats; Senior Officials cassette (1996, kRkRkRk, KRK068)
  • Inconvenience cassette (1996, Union Pole, UP64)
  • InfinityLand cassette (1997, Shrimper, SHR88)

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