l'éléphant cruel

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An "electro dub chanson duo"? Absolutely way outta leftfield lo-fi dub with a Francophile touch after a surprisingly leisurely trip down the autobahn. Hey-o-Hansen are Helmut Erler and Michael Wolf and recently appeared both singly and together on the 'Hotel Stadt Berlin' compilation of new electronica from Germany's capital. Their debut full-length 'L'éléphant cruel' (the title apparently purloined from a David Hockney painting) certainly qualifies them for a category all their own, if you could only come up with a suitable name for it.

It's all really quite lighthearted and amusing. While the singers aren't exactly going to rouse Bob Marley and Peter Tosh from their graves, their dub sensibilities are refined and the pretty melodica lines recurring throughout the record make for some prime entertainment. There's an almost vaudevillian breadth to this showcase, though everything is, as mentioned, kept tightly within the cozy confines of the dub universe.