If you have never heard of Hypnoskull, then where the hell did you buy your sleeping pills? Those must be some powerful ones because Hypnoskull is alive and has never been more relevant to the music industry then these days. And he has been a relative in the industry for over 30 years, which is proven by this release. This was originally released in 1994, and from what I understood, it was kinda ‘lost’, so for Patrick Stevens (the man behind the project), it was kind of a surprise too to see this release surfacing again.
The tracks are from 4 years before the legendary first release on Ant-Zen, being ‘Rhythmusmaschine 1-2’, with Ant-Zen developing itself into now of the major labels in the industrial scene in the second half of the nineties. I can’t remember how often I’ve seen Hypno with label mates Imminent (Starvation), Asche and Synapscape perform in those days and the many years of Maschinenfest in the years thereafter. And either as Hypnoskull or in disguise as one of his many different projects, Patrick always stuck to his ideals. Nihilistic, anarchistic, in your face, loud, direct, sometimes with too many beers, but always honest and friendly. And so far, my notes in this review are because we’re back to the music. Because in the end, that is what Patrick is about too.
“Cyberpunisher” was, as said earlier, released in 1994, back when Hypnoskull wasn’t known. It was recorded in about 3 weeks, as with all Hypnoskull albums. If it takes too long to create, the vibe is wrong, and it’s not good enough. So, we already know the vibe on this one is as it should be. It was released by the – for me – fully unknown Hahamandad label from Axel in the Netherlands. Their last release, according to Discogs, was from 1995, and even though most names are unfamiliar to me, I see a few known ones, too, like Konstruktivists, The Venus Fly Trap and Sigmar Fricke. The original tape was used as a master and remastered for CD, and it got new artwork. It sounds and looks lovely.
What makes this particular release interesting is that Patrick was mainly experimenting with noise and sounds before this release. This was the first release where he experimented with rhythm. Rhythm as a weapon. Rhythm to make a statement. And maybe because this is one of those first experiments, the impact is audible. The sound is evolving as – back then – the artist was evolving. There are moments where the sound experiments are the most essential part of the track, and there are moments where it’s the noise, and somewhere the rhythm is in the lead. And no, I’ll not write down titles and stuff. if you’re interested in finding out how Hypnoskull became Hypnoskull, you will simply have to go to the Bandcamp page and listen. And then decide on whether you want to complete your collection. Because if you’re still reading, we both know you already HAVE more Hypnoskull and you definitely WANT more Hypnoskull.
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