The results can echo the digital machine-rhythms of early techno or electro, ominously dark and filmic industrial soundscapes, or the cyclical chatter of hard minimalism. Whatever the associations, the music retains a sharp visceral kick that reminds the listener that Kim Åge Furuhaug-who also appears on Hubro’s recent release ‘Voice & Strings & Timpani’ – is a real-life drummer, not a dilettante composer flirting with percussion. He’s played with various rock and pop groups for most of his career. Previous bands include Bloody Beach and The Alexandria Quartet, and he’s part of the current instrumental group Orions Belte.
“The previous ten years have been spent recording music for other people’s albums, as well as my own bands and projects. And I’ve been a freelance and session drummer with some of the biggest acts in Norway”, Furuhaug says.”
Super Heavy Metal is my chance to approach music in a totally different way. At the time of recording my first album I didn’t really play improvised or strictly instrumental music, but the experience opened doors for me musically. Back then, we didn’t use any effects other than treating it like you would in a normal mix. The goal was to make it sound like cymbals actually sound, just not harsh, pingy, or uncomfortable.“
“For ‘Gong Splash Midi Midi’ I approached things totally differently, with less planning and lots of effects. Emil Nikolaisen introduced the possible idea of electronically processing the cymbals, and he suggested I should work with Ådne Meisfjord, so I asked them both to join me. Emil as a producer and Ådne as a musician. I didn’t want to have any rules for the songs and I wanted to keep it free. There were a few sketches of rhythmical patterns but I think we ended up only using one of them, which became the first track on the album, ‘Super Duper.’ It’s melodic but still very rhythmic. The recording process for this album was a very quick one, but mixing it was exhausting.“
The result is an intense-and intensely distilled: it’s just less than half an hour in duration-musical experience where the range of sounds and the uses they are put to are dizzyingly creative. Sometimes there’s a steady pulse throughout, sometimes not. The music can be obviously percussive and industrial-sounding-like some twisted art installation in a sheet metal factory, all clanking machines and reverbed anvils-or it can transform the sonic qualities of base metal into new synthesized shapes. Yet whatever the sound, it’s all-metal, says Kim Åge Furuhaug. “Everything you hear from the synths is generated from my playing.
