Actually Not A Lifeparty (ZOHARUM ZOHAR 359-4) by HRV exists as a limited cassette as well as digital download – a four-track EP which gives the listener a soundtrack for personal depression, in keeping with many of the pessimistic and dark gloomoid releases to be found on this label.
Besides being a musical fellow, Bartosz Hervy is also a video maker and graphic designer, and admits to dealing with an extended bout of depression over the last ten years. Judging by the evidence here, he didn’t take it lying down and comes out with all fists swinging – rather than wallowing in self-pitying ambient doom, he builds agitated techno tracks with nervous, twitchy beats, breathless samples, and short repeated patterns, then adds layers of minor key chords and bleak melodies to confirm the clouds of anxiety that dog his life. The very title seems to be railing against the dominant message of “life’s a party” which continues to be force-fed to young people through the media and advertising, and instead reveals the darker truths about the human psyche. HRV’s music may not be especially original, but I admire his fighting spirit and applaud his attempts to realise a personal form of musical therapy and self-healing.
Meanwhile the cover art indicates he is overwhelmed by menacing tower blocks in a nocturnal wasteland, which threaten to crush his soul as they loom over him in numbers. I know Brutalist architecture has been undergoing a renaissance of interest in recent years, and some viewers may enjoy the charms of these rare examples of Brutalist architecture, but that’s of zero comfort to HRV. (22/10/2025)