Customer Reviews

Dirty Hands

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Johnny Hollow's "Dirty Hands", to me, is what I expect to be playing in Goth clubs like Detroit's City Club. Instead, I am always nauseatingly greeted with KMFDM or VNV Nation. I can only hope that one day the DJs at these fine establishments discover bands like Johnny Hollow, who are doing brilliantly imaginative music that is still appropriately dark, moody and complex while maintaining a sense of danceability.

I think what separates Johnny Hollow from a lot of the EBM and cyber-goth bands is its employment of a wider range of instruments and more dynamic composition. In addition to the electronic music production and guitars, they employ cellos, pianos and so on. They also use a lot of great melodies and it all comes with a great vocalist. Even the lyrics are not too bad, a point on which this type of music usually fails me. They use a female vocalist whose voice is both pretty and powerful, and works with the dynamics of the music very well.

There are some amazing songs present. A few of them are slower, a few have a rock sensibility, others could, as I said, fit in a dance club quite nicely. All of the songs feel traditionally Gothic, in a way I feel is also very fresh and new. I would not put them in any sort of deathrock, bat cave sort of sound, however. They seem to be flirting with this neovictorian / steampunk style that is similar to artists like Rasputina, or Abney Park. A few of the songs, notably "Bogeyman", are downright awesome. "Bogeyman" has an epic industrial sound that builds and explodes at the chorus. The music transforms and the vocals go from somewhat sultry to downright seductive. The whole album is quite moving. There is a cover of The Doors "People Are Strange" that doesn't do much for me, but other people may enjoy.

In addition to Rasputina and Abney Park, "Dirty Hands" may also be of interest to people who like Attrition or Emily Autumn.

Honestly I hesitate to lump Johnny Hollow in with goth bands, for fear that the association conjures images of too much insipid bawling.

In abrupt contrast to most things goth, Johnny Hollow is potent and intricate, and imaginative. The wide array of instruments is incredibly refreshing (distortion cello anyone?). Janine White's vocals are beautiful, strong, haunting, and have more attitude than most female goth singers I've heard in a very long time.

The only thing about this band that falls flat at times is Vincent Marcone's occasional spoken word vocals. On "Die for Love" in particular, Marcone's piece is too long, and I find myself wanting to skip to White's incredible voice.

That's a minor quibble though when this band is really so great. The songs "Bogeyman" and "Superhero" alone are worth the price of the album. "Bogeyman" has a fantastic buildup, and the song is filled with emotional complexity. "Superhero" has this insistent driving beat to it, and I have to admit I've got some of its evocotive and catchy lyrics stuck in my head now.

Johnny Hollow is the kind of music a jaded, mostly ex-goth, like myself can still listen to and love, while wishing that I'd had something this intense to immerse myself in years ago.

Dark, brooding cello-driven music with an edge. This is the kind of band that gets lumped into the generic goth/industrial label, but has too much passion and songwriting skill to be hanging with most of their modern contemporaries. Even though there's no strict parallel, they remind me most of the Dresden Dolls, with less manic energy but a more moody atmosphere. There's also a hint of Trespasser Williams in some of the more sparse arrangements, although Johnny Hollow has an overall grungier vibe. There are a number of standout tracks for me here, from the excellent instrumental opener (Alchemy), to the more energetic, club-friendly numbers (Stranger, Worse Things, Alibi), into what is probably my favourite song, the melancholy Nova Heart. Overall, "Dirty Hands" is a fantastic album, the best find I've had in ages.

Just spices your imagination and lets you travel throughout a mystic and twisted sensation of beeing in a obscure love.

Beautiful. Haunting. Chilling. Sweet/sad. All words used before to describe Johnny Hollow's music, but they bear repeating. On hearing "Superhero," I couldn't help but think of Steven T. Seagle's book "It's A Bird..." (which is a compliment to both, by the by). And I have long known that The Doors had a gothic edge; the cover of "People Are Strange" validates that. Turn off the lights. Listen. Then listen again...and have some beautiful nightmares.

Johnny Hollow is quite simply one of the most compelling, lyrically-entrancing bands to come out of the Canadian underground in ages. This is an electronica-and-instrument-playing postgoth cornucopia that leaves you just hoping for more. In reality, Johnny Hollow's second opus is a fit spiritual successor to their first album, almost certain to surpass both your expectations and those of critics.

While not a whole lot of tracks are what you would expect from a goth-like ensemble, a surprising amount of heartfelt passion melds well enough with the gentle rythms in those songs to get you swaying and moving gently, if out outright dancing in a slow, faelike manner.

Johnny Hollow is a fresh look at a musical genre that has always been tagged as too ethereal, too formulaic or too occult to figure out. Should the band break out big, I can already imagine plenty of their songs being borrowed as fit playgrounds for DJs to remix. Give it a try.