Parisian/Nova Scotian duo Hey Mother Death’s name is inspired by Allen Ginsberg’s “Father Death Blues”, and their music is a poetic melange of spoken word and experimental music. Their debut cassette contains three songs which are repeated on both sides. “You Left Me” opens with the most rhythmic song on the tape, utilizing a slow, brittle Casio rhythm and some dubby chords, along with light organ and sporadic avant-guitar. The spoken lyrics are in French, but the booklet translates them, and they are simple and striking (“Your mouth, your hands, your lips… You let me fall”). “Black Monday” contains no rhythm, and is 8 minutes of pure despair. The lyrics are translated again, but one doesn’t need the translation when the slow pacing and minimalist, candlelit piano tell you how sorrowful this is. “Desert Of Trees And Water” is the final piece, and probably the most striking. The lyrics are in English this time, and they describe heartbreak with images of storms and deserts. Musically, it blends ambient tones with doom-metal guitars, and some slow, skeletal beats (the type that might’ve been called “illbient” 15 years ago) turn up towards the end, more for emphasis than rhythm.
