First Listen: The Haiduks – 1968.
April 13, 2011, 2 comments
“It all started when I was 16 and I pulled out In the Court of the Crimson King from my Dad’s record collection. As soon as I put the needle on that thing, my life changed forever.”
King Crimson – 21st Century Schizoid Man (from In the Court of the Crimson King, Atlantic 1969):
With these ardent words about one of last century’s seminal prog rock albums, Montréal, Québec resident Christian Richer started to tell the story about the foundation of his project The Haiduks which has led to the creation of one of this year’s most exciting and most unanticipated records, 1968. Named after the Haiduk Peak near Banff, Alberta, under this moniker Richer has finally made a dream come true that had haunted him since he had started making music: to record an album that purely and unashamedly shows his love for 60s psych pop.
It’s been a long way to the realization of 1968. After a couple of years traveling and aimlessly straying into different musical directions, the offspring of the Ottawa suburbs had found his first artistic home among Montréal’s thriving experimental/psychedelic scene alongside Hobo Cubes, Le Révélateur, Bernardino Femminielli et al., which led to the first recordings under his Élément Kuuda moniker for which he’s since become known.
Élément Kuuda – Hivernale et Mathématique (taken from Beko DSL x Hobo Cult)
But significant praise notwithstanding, the idea of a 60s-infused pop album remained stuck in Richer’s head. Having already written the first two Haiduks songs Diamond Drops and I’m Still Here while being on a trip to the Bahamas in 2009, he wholeheartedly started recording on his own in his tiny Montréal apartment last year. The outcome – finalized with a little help from Einar Jullum Leiknes on guitar, background singing and Mellotron arrangements, Hannah Rahimi playing flute and Dan Pencer on clarinet and saxophone – is nothing less than overwhelming.
Of course, you might ask if the world of 2011 needs an album that’s so hopelessly nostalgia-dripping and almost excessively true to original 60s psych pop. But on the other hand, in a way 1968 could even be considered the overdue complement to hypnagogic pop’s inner agenda to musically manifest the blurry memories of the music of our childhood: at least in my case (and Richer’s), growing up in the 80s and 90s did not only mean Boys of Summer but also our parents’ collection of late 60s/early 70s psychedelia. Admittedly, where h-pop manipulates our recollection by deconstructing and re-contextualizing the original concepts, playing 1968 actually feels like putting on one of those dusty records we’ve just found in a box in the attic.
Still, Richer is also right when pointing out that this album is “a modern piece containing an old school aesthetic, rather than an album trying to sound like it was made during that time. It’s more of an homage or a big ‘thank you’ to all the brilliant, inspired and beautiful music that’s been made during the 60s”. And a beautiful, devoted homage it is, with its splendidly psychedelic production and rich pop harmonies somewhere between Brian Wilson and, at times, Simon & Garfunkel (on Melodie) – 1968 is an amazing piece of music from start to finish.
And next, now that the dream has come true? “Although I really enjoy making 60s sounding music, I don’t wish to reproduce it or to make it again”, Richer told me. “My next album will be a more lo-fi and garage type of feel. I accomplished what I wanted with 1968, and now it’s time to move on into a dirtier direction.” Listening to his fabulous track Use Up My Time from the above-mentioned Beko DSL x Hobo Cult compilation, we might already have been given a hint at the new artistic course of an incredibly creative mind.
Exclusive:
1968 is coming out on vinyl via Digitalis this summer.
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