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'Hugo Race and True Spirit'

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The Goldstreet Sessions spooky011        

 

Reviews - The Goldstreet Sessions

High Bias - Austin Texas, USA

Hugo Race is a major figure in the Australian music scene, but known in the States, if at all, for his frequent guest appearances on Nick Cave records. A shame, that, since The Goldstreet Sessions shows an artist with a distinct vision worthy of more attention. Sedate full band arrangements and a languid pace frame Race's atmospheric guitar swells and startlingly Leonard Cohenesque vocals. The songs dig deep into the subconscious musings of a wide variety of folks, both misfits and everyday people. Haunted, gorgeous tunes like "Hush Money," "LSD is Dead" and the towering epic "Is Your Love Strong" exude not so much doomed romanticism as a sort of sublime stoicism, letting emotions wash over the protagonists but not through them. That's not to say this music is cold—far from it, in fact—but Race's characters roll with the punches and keep on keeping on, rather than succumb to fatalism or despair. A unique, challenging and stimulating record.

Michael Toland

 

MAG - Australia

Hugo Race - erstwhile Bad Seed, and leader of 80s stalwarts The Wreckery - remains one of the great unsung talents of Australian music, and with ‘The Gold Street Sessions’, the leathery old wolf of the nightmare psycho blues returns with an intensely atmospheric recording. Whilst traditional song writing methods remain at the forefront, the eight tracks here are laced with disembodied beats, buried horn instrumentation, twisted spoken samples and – always – Race’s lurking 60 a day cough of a voice. Joining his True Spirit ensemble on this occasion are Sicilian author and chanteuse Marta Collica, and Kristof Hahn from Swans, complementing the sense of Euro high art feel that has long permeated the Berlin based Race’s music. The nine minute after dark nightmare that is “Is Your Love Strong” builds from a melancholy lament to a cavorting doomed circus, whilst ‘Premonition’ casts Race as Dave Graney’s satanic doppelganger. Only the single ‘AM Radio’ hints at any classic influences, the rest of The Gold Street Sessions requires a darkened room and an open bottle. Doubt not – this is a dangerous little record from a songwriter who is only ever the real deal.

Jonathan Alley

 

Time Off – Brisbane

With his husky and sinister voice, Race paints a shadowy picture of back alleys, lonely dirt roads and desperate individuals.

Backed by the True Spirit for this, their 11th album together, songs like ‘Hush Money’ and ‘Makes Me Mean’ evoke some seedy film-noir underbelly where 3am bands play to folks who the next day might simply disappear. In ‘Is Your Love Strong’ not everyone makes it out the other side of passion. All the while, haunting brass, distant piano and Race’s aching guitar bleed and weep through each song.

Whatever Berlin does to Australians, it does darken their music; such was the case with Nick Cave’s mid-80s creative epitasis and herein lies the same.

Richard Alverez

 

 

Logo Magazine

Suffocatingly rich through both its brooding, desolate atmospherics and Race’s gravel-throated whispers, ‘The Goldstreet Sessions’ are a substantial musical affair. A founder member of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, Hugo Race and his True Spirit collective place a smouldering torch under the corner of psychedelic, bluesy ambience and allow it to morph into a cusp of experimental smoke and expanding, eerie beats. Concerned lyrically with the dawn of the new millennium, Race accentuates the ethereal feel with couplets as scathing and focused as “you ain’t getting the real juice/ just stupid lies and half truths”, whilst rarely veering from the monotone murmurs that make this such a haunting and weighty listen. ‘The Goldstreet Sessions’ are essential listening.

Pete Steel