‘Tis the season of the EP. Running short of completing a full album? Reach for the next best thing and release a short player filled with all sorts of weirdness. HXXS noodle collages of drone and tape loops but without the basic skill or bombast of the leading protagonists of this form or even long forgotten pioneers. An American electro duo tinkering with sound can be traced to the incomparable Suicide. Although too much trickery can make for a cold listen. Listening to ‘Seppuku’ opens things and is like laying on a slab in a morgue. As this is the Japanese term for suicide by disembowelment of course.
Titles like ‘Vices’ and ‘Trippin’ can be the manuscript for angst-filled obsessives everywhere, who wallow in things and are strangely proud of this. Most songs are suitably bite-sized, although the closer ‘Widowmaker’ ensures the recording is saved from firing blanks.
Mournful in voice and perspective, HXXS make for an exhausting although at times exhilarating listen because this duo really doesn’t know when to slow down. By the end of the record they are yet to get their head straight whilst striving for some sort of high concept art. Bad news on that score but they may yet achieve vindication.
6.5/10
