American Killick Hinds plays on a variety of unusual stringed instruments (bowed H’arpeggione; Big Red harp guitar; 3rd bridge Harmonic Isolator; infinite sustain Vo-96; fretless guitar; quarter tone fretted guitar; banjo; 3-string one-holer; 6- & 7-string guitar) and calls its music Appalachian Trance Metal or Piedmont Shaman Rock. Hinds played already on about 300 albums. His new album «Imbricate» was recorded live between June and September 2021 at his H(i)nds(i)ght Studio in Athens, Georgia. Hinds improvised with strings and, occasionally, computer augmentation, and later mixed and mastered, designed the cover, and released the album via the label he co-founded Habitable Records. He says that this album feels «like the fullest expression of the Appalachian Trance Metal».
Killick describes his state of mind while recording «Imbricate»: «This is light; hours of Stampede, Smurf, Kaboom!; this is heartship; this is suburbs; boredom; hope; imagination; fear; this is sunk; it’s kaleidoscopic; it’s hard to follow; this is pushed through a door on a rainbow of memories; this is lack of motivation; this is a lifeline; it’s my best offering; it’s overmodulation, restraint, indecision; this is first-person; it’s foregone; it’s private; this is on display; this is a privilege, this is privilege; it’s regional; it’s specific and wicked general; this is timespanning; this is age; it’s a treat; it’s a blast; this is fun; this is hard; this is soft; accented; nuanced; overt; dreamcoaxing; inventive; attributed; this is what I know, feel, guess; it’s a little difficult to talk about – it’s curious, this – I can’t stop the process; this is overexposure; this is synaptical; this is stored up; it’s unsorted; considered and (perhaps) considered; regarded; ambient; silky; reflective; pizza; tea ceremony; cloud formation; this is my forest; this is sustenance; it’s moving and gives a hoot; it’s thankful this is soul repair; it’s interactive; it’s sustained; this is where I’ve been all this time».
The nine pieces invite into the rich and twisted musical universe of Hinds. He says that «Imbricate» was inspired by American speller, basketball player, and juggler Zaila Avant-garde, Sardinian guitarist Paolo Angeli, Bali, other beautiful people and places, and people and places yet to be. These pieces visit exotic sonic territories, suggesting primitive, hypnotic-percussive rituals, traveling to vintage sci-fi destinations, offer mysterious and atmospheric noises and drones, a more or less conventional guitar solo with the ironic title «Contemporary Jazz Label», and tells enigmatic stories. No sound or texture is predictable or innocent, and all tread on their own special and imaginative ways.
Eyal Hareuveni
Killick Hinds (stringed instruments, real-time MIDI augmentation)
