DOG BLESS YOU / MENY HELLKIN - Split

6 songs
37:25 minutes
***** ***
Chez Kito Kat

Dog Bless You page

After my first time through this split-CD by Dog Bless You and Meny Hellkin, I wondered if two any more different artists could share a record. But isn’t that what makes this format so interesting in the first place?

Dog Bless You is the solo project by Samuel Ricciuti, one of the people behind the Chez Kito Kat label from Metz. His music is electronic in nature, but he adds quite a lot of acoustic instruments in order to create a very pleasant dichotomy. The opener Hier encore for instance combines gracefully dark ambient structures with jazzy drums and piano parts. The quite short 2052 is an atmospheric soundtrack piece with cranky electronic knob twisting. 70’s German Porn is another moody track, where underneath the mellow melody you can detect strange noises. The remix of or by Meny Hellkin is an interesting mixing of both artists’ sounds, and just like later a remix of or by Dog Bless You, it basically doesn’t add up to the general merit of the album.

For French band Meny Hellkin, this turns out to be a posthumous release, as the band split last year. They are features with only one regular track, which happens to be a cover version of the Pink Floyd classic Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun from 1968. Back in the Sixties, this was already quite a psychedelic ride, and Meny Hellkin double its length to generous eighteen minutes, transforming this ancient epic into a sludgy drone noise monster that reminds me at times of Neurosis. Is there any better way to say goodbye?

It might be hard for this release to find an audience that will be pleased by both artists, but those open-minded enough to enjoy electronica and experimental noise will definitely discover some treasures on this excellent split-CD.