Horchata, Basidia (Ad Noiseam)

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"Basidia", says my dictionary, "are specialized end-cells on which the fungi that possess them produce their spores". And thus, the cover of Horchata´s debut solo release is decorated with colourful close-ups of an assortment of fungal matter, and each and every title, including the bonus track remixed by Twine, is of mushroomy origin. [”Gleba” = fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of e.g. a puffball or stinkhorn”.]

Horchata is one Michael Palace, a scientist employed by the New Hampshire Complex Systems Research Center. During his researches he has apparently made field recordings in the Amazon, some of which he interleaves into the music, to great effect. Horchata is also, my faithful dictionary informs me, “tiger nut milk“ in Spanish, a refreshing soft drink.

That name is the only incongruous element in what is otherwise a highly coherent total package. Horchata´s music belongs to that hybrid territory which evolved several years ago out of the dark ambient intentions of so-called "isolationism" and the plodding, almost clumsy beats of hip hop´s unacknowledged bastard child, dark hop. Music that seemed recorded of 45, but insisted on playing itself at 16 rpm. This music has its own, more or less underground following and is usually the creation of single individuals rather than groups. As such, like fungus, it can be found anywhere a dark thought might take hold an individual´s musical mind.

The difference with Horchata is that in his music, darkness and light peacefully co-exist; "Conidia", which features a light-hearted melody, is immediately followed by "Cyst", with its harder beats suggesting an unpleasant back alley battering.

Horchata is not so much scary music, but rather resembles the work of a gentler, more reserved younger brother to Mick Harris (compare it to his "Sonics Everywhere" CD compilation). Dark enough indeed, but with a very low tempo and wisps of light filtering through. A richer palette than most musicians in the field, a broader scope of emotion (something actually sorely lacking in the genre); the track "Mycosis" actually tugs at my heartstrings for some reason. Music that oozes its way unremittingly forward, downward, deeper.