This of course is an early cut of the experiment working with our track "Control Freak" from the album "Murder the World."
Using hypnosis and trance techniques on the first night I listened to the track on repeat, and wrote down all images and impressions that bubbled up as I hovered on the edge of the liminal door. Then the next day, began collecting source that seemed to match that inspiration as close as possible. That's where this is at. Now it's just a matter of fine details.
Next up is "In The Flesh," and then possibly one more if the inspiration is still flowing.
This is Johan Ess, lead singer and lyricist for HoodooEngine, bringing you the best and newest mindstuffs floating about in the void. The new video by Primus, Tragedy's 'A Comin', gives a rather inspired take on the ravenous inequity that has been given such widespread attention lately. This type of mass obsession with the horrible condition of class issues is largely due to the #OccupyWallStreet movement going on right now, which we fully support. Anyway, back to the video. Basically, you've got their bassist/singer Les Claypool wearing a giant lobster costume on the beach in the daydream of one of the lobsters awaiting his fate in a restaurant's tank, as the privileged dine and party like there's no tomorrow. The video has an amusing climax with an astronaut riding in on a horse to devour the Claypool lobster, making me wonder if this was all just inspired by a nightmare he recently had.
Primus is no stranger to infusing class commentary into their music, with previous songs like Too Many Puppies, American Life, Welcome To This World, DMV, and of course, who could forget Those Damn Blue Collar Tweakers amongst the more obvious critical jabs of society at large. In fact, despite their reputation as a stoner's wet dream of a proggy funky slippery mud rock trio, Primus has always managed to balance their infamous alternative wackyness with a deeper set of socially conscious views. "Musically, it's upbeat," Les Claypool says, "But lyrically, the song is all about impending doom." When there's "a storm coming, the rain must fall. But to depict that would have been the cliché thing to do, so we've got lobsters."
Keeping in line with the invertebrate theme, the track Invocation from my new solo album, vltrahex, has a line that calls on listeners to "raise up your claws!" in defiance of the submission demanded by an economically obsessed society...
In much the same vein, with projects like HoodooEngine, I have always intended to convey the very palpable sense of impending doom without devolving into utter cliché. This has always been best remedied by the vigorous application of comic relief.
Whether it is referencing Grant Morrison's cancer-dimensional Archons from The Invisibles graphic series, the absurd notion of "alchemists in their fancy aether, turning their shit to gold", or the inhumanly robotic "machinations of silicon, making their way to your rear", these lyrics are designed to amuse and alter your brain chemistry...
If you like that last track, be sure to get our new album that just came out, Murder The World.
HoodooEngine is a musical jihad against corporate thoughtforms. We’ll use their tools against them, and drink tequila as the old guard crumbles and topples from its own weight.
As we were in the studio preparing our second album, "Murder The World," James also brought around his hand recorder and chronicled our descent into madness, including some of the tracks in progress as they were at that point (you can hear the finals now on the album). This is it- a 2 part podcast series completely unlike any other podcast you've ever heard.
These recording sessions were a taxing process that involves copious amounts of drugs and self-abuse, so bear with us and check out the album when it’s released as CD if we don’t all OD on cough syrup and fermented yak semen, or invoke a wrathful demon that replaces all of our bodily fluids with nutella.
And of course, the album "Murder The World" digital album: now waiting for final master but already available:
What's we been up to, you ask? Here's a little taste...
I'm leaking this little "B" side for you for labor day or some shit.
If you don't "get it" let me help refresh your memory. (I know drug abuse is hell on recall.)
You can thank Clark for the phone call you can hear in this track. And yes, he really was on the line with the hospital, asking to have his dick removed. A MAN HAS NEEDS, OK?
Last but not least... Here our some of our recent band photos. Don't we look purdy?
You should be able to pre-order on Bandcamp as well. Kick ass! It's going into mastering now at Bob Idakaar's studio -- tubes should lend some nice warmth. We're hoping for a final release in September, though it might be slightly after.
Check out this interview if you're new to our music and want to know a bit about us.
As you know, if you've been following our site, we are still hard at work on our album Murder The World. All going well, we should be hitting the final mastering sometime this summer.
We have an interview that we should be dropping on you any...week...now with Solipsistic Nation, in the same show where you can catch some new updates from Ogre (Skinny Puppy) and Tim Skold (KMFDM, Marilyn Manson). We can't promise you won't catch some kind of aural disease from putting all of us in your ear holes. Just saying - we did warn you, and we can't be held legally responsible. It should be a hell of a show.
But in the meantime, here's one of the tracks - pre master and final mix - from the album. We're super cereal guys.
Here is a look under the hood of the hoodooengine locomotive. ("Hey, locomotives don't have hoods." "Shut up already.")
We've been working on this album for quite some time, and hope to have it in mastering by this summer.
Enjoy the music. These are low bit-rate versions, but should give you an idea of our acoustic and unholy fury. Tell your friends, and make sure to draw that circle of salt around yourself before listening. (Or take off your shirt. It has the same effect.)
In the midst of engineering their next epic and sweaty album, HoodooEngine brings heavy words of doom to the masses through a feature in the Spring 2011 Carpe Nocturne Magazine, as follows...
HOODOOENGINE CONJURES DEMONS IN YOUR LIVING ROOM WITH THEIR UPCOMING RELEASE: “MURDER THE WORLD”
It has only been a matter of months since our strange conglomeration of dubious characters, HoodooEngine, mercilessly ejaculated its first stream of tracks upon the world in the form of EgoWhore. We are only now preparing to open the 9th gate for our next release with the material we've been working on since 2008: Murder The World. Oddly enough, the material for our near-complete second album began over a year before we joined forces to put out our first release as HoodooEngine.
As the title might imply, Murder The World is an incredibly dark trip, one might even say a completely nihilistic one. When we first started working on it, we were deep “under cover” in several corporations, and so maybe you could say the demons we were trying to exorcise (or invoke? I can't tell anymore) were the Corporate egregores that dominate the planet. And if you don't know what that means, don't worry. You will soon enough.
Some of that nihilism comes through the music, and certainly we got to have fun digging into some more intricate metal riffs than we did on EgoWhore. But it comes through most clearly in the lyrics. Acting with our loose guidance, Johan has been channeling some truly horrifying, and dare I say obscure magic. Occultists will probably feel like it's Christmas morning, and all their presents are being handed out by voluptuous green-eyed succubi. But non-Occultists can enjoy it just as much. I mean the flip side is: How many people listen to lyrics these days, right? So you can rock along to the music and have no idea that you're helping us conjure demons that will devour the dominant paradigm in their massive, hungry maws. That's fine. Sing along, kids. Sing along. Master will be pleased.
Seriously though, we think Murder The World will be an experience that twists your mind through the morbid annals of an unholy ultimate destiny. EgoWhore is something you can dance to while starting a revolution and decimating zombies. It has a point, but heavy as it is, it's still a bit more lighthearted than Murder The World, especially with tracks like “Hoodoo Luv” that have prominent crunk chants. EgoWhore is a non-stop progression of hooks and anthems. There's a strong pop structure underlying the album, despite how it doesn't sound too much like pop on the surface. (Thus the title, among other traits.)
A few of the tracks on Murder The World hearken back to that, so we can keep the Gucci Goths happy. But other tracks, like “Drawing The Void” would just melt people's face off on the dance floor. And we all liked Raiders of the Lost Ark but who wants to have their face melted off when dancing? So blast it in your car, on your headphones, or at home on your ridiculously expensive audiophile soundsystem while having rough sex, but for the love of everything unholy, wear the proper protective gear. It might not be a bad idea to draw a circle around yourself, purify your chakras, or at least take a salt bath after listening. Or you know, don't...
We’d also like to point out that while there haven’t been any confirmed injuries from enjoying our music, that doesn’t it can’t happen. Oh, and also be sure not to take us too seriously. Banish with laughter.
Check out www.hoodooengine.com for music, releases, and interviews. We especially suggest you look into the podcast that we released with Alterati.com if you want a glimpse at the insanity we conjured up in our basement studio while working on this material.
A quick announcement for those that'd been following the production (and podcasts- listen) tied to Murder The World:
We will be releasing that material as our second album, "Murder The World," as soon as it is ready. In the meantime, EgoWhore should be available through most major online retail services within the next month. I'll keep you posted.
