Hari Hardman – aka The Scourge of Berkshire – has in his time raised quite a ruckus with his extreme, ear-pounding digital-noise escapades of shrillness and his written screeds of incoherent gibberish intended to scramble common sense, but today he’s here with a mini CDR We Found a Spaceship in the Woods (HARI HARDMAN PRODUKTS HH033).
It’s almost a musical synth drone. Possibly he’s taking a leaf out of Ian Holloway’s book (Holloway – aka The Swansea Spaceman – is also The British Space Group who does occasional tributes to Dr Who, Radiophonic Workshop and UK supernatural fiction on the telly). Now that I play this queasy tuneless synth chiller, I’m not so sure. Discordant tones mix up with an alien “sighing” sound from capacious lungs to evoke all of our worst nightmares about the extra-terrestrial zones and visitations from strange creatures with electric ears and hideous snouts. Hardman’s trick is to pile on the terrors and increase the intensity somehow – the basic audio emanations become more urgent, as unseen fingers probe our brain in search of the inner “panic button”. Part of the strangeness comes from its refusal of conventional “harmony”, meaning there’s no recognisable root note or key, although if I am right in pegging Hardman as an outsider-primitive, this is probably more of a happy accident than a planned exercise in breaking musicological rules.
Either way the competing frequencies multiply in an alarming way. The atmosphere becomes intolerable as we draw nearer the spaceship in the woods, presumably entering into its baleful magnetic forces and drawn to an unwelcome encounter with the crew of “greys” – why can’t we turn back? The inexorable pull of these forces from Alpha Centauri are vividly captured by this highly unusual creator. And yet, when the meeting takes place, all Hardman can find to say to the Cosmic Visitor is “Good morning, I like your hat.” There’s bathos for you. (23/12/2024)