Kai Hugo`s latest instalment of his on-going multi-media project takes one of his previous characters, Cindy Savalas, and casts her as the victim of a fatal hit and run. The accompanying short films feature a mock interview with Kai, conducted by a guy named Samantha. In a homage / lampoon of public access TV, set in a community called Carmel Vista. Controlled by the mysterious IAO Industries. With dancers Julia I & II demonstrating the groovy nature of Palmbomen II`s “songs”. “All Live”, and intercut with ads for car rentals, computer games, crazy falafels, crystals, evangelists (House of Evangelical Liberation – HEL for short), funeral parlours, girly action, Goth energy drinks, pet photographers, toothpaste, and UFO tours. Their delivery ranging from deadpan to deranged. All seemingly created on a Commodore Amiga 500, with Toaster, Lightwave, and Photon Paint.
One of the segments promotes a 24 / 7 club named Dancing & Crying. Which looks like a neon-trimmed black coffin. The club`s playlist supplying a few clues to where Palmbomen II is coming from musically: Aphex Twin, Blake Baxter, Cocteau Twins, Dean Blunt, Electronome, Julee Cruise, Legowelt, Slowdive (the source of the falafel gag).
Focussing on the music alone, Memories Of Cindy is like finding a Teen`s video diary. With Cindy the Laura Palmer, the local girl lost. Luke Wyatt`s Torn Hawk providing an alternative score to David Lynch`s Twin Peaks. The weirdness beneath the scratched white picket fence of Blue Velvet America conveyed with a hallucinatory production. Of overdriven old school Chicago drum-machine patterns, and melodies carried on disintegrating loops. Chimes played on deteriorating tape. Speeding up. Slowing down. Cutting out. Like watching an `80s flick on a pirate Betamax copy. Distorting and wobbling. Spying on Nightmare On Elm Street`s Nancy just before a jump scare, while listening to a live recording of Adonis and Marcus Mixx` raw analogue House. Jack Frost And The Circle Jerks. Cindy in ecstasy. SFX whistling around Möbius strips of phased sound. Mind-Dance music that echoes the aforementioned Richard D. James` Selected Ambient Works. Seefeel`s Time To Find Me. SFV Acid meets One Dove.
Synthetic, saccharine, love themes. Fairlight voices. Tubular bells. All Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence pretty, but woozy. Un-MIDIed. Off centre. Salt in its sugar. Something not quite right. Like the cheerleadering prom queen secretly turning tricks for kicks. Sleazy. Like the macho cruising chug of a Patrick Cowley Porn soundtrack. Marching rhythms. Cymbal showers. Sweethearts` whispers. Ringing around your head as if trapped by cocaine-inflamed sinuses. Romance remembered in a fever dream.
Palmbomen II`s Memories Of Cindy exists in a range of formats (Box set, individual 12s, CDs), all of which appear to have differing release dates. The best place to get to grips with what`s going on is over at the RVNG Intl. website.
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