Hardy Fox — Nachtzug
The EP comes in the form of a CD on Klanggalerie. Featured on its front cover is a moody nighttime picture of a night-time train station. And on the inside a picture of a heart inside a human body, and text outlining the concept of the project. The Ep was created in the aftermath of the last Resident’s album Fox worked on 2017’s Ghost Of Hope, and it shares a similar theme of trains & train travel; but instead of focus in on stories of death & tragedy as the Ghosts Of Hope album did, Nachtzug has a much more personal leaning
The Ep is made up of seven tracks- these each run between just over one & four minutes, and really it’s one of the most compactly composed & sonically varied works Fox has ever created, either in The Residents or as a solo artist. During the writing/creating of the tracks here Fox was awaiting a serious heart operation, and at the time it was unsure if he was going to survive it- so he had at one point seen this as his final work- so like his self-titled solo album/ heart there is very much a feeling of sadness here- with Fox wavering & weedy vocals appearing ever often in the mix. Yet there is a feeling of hope of what is going to happen next, and much of the work is propelled along by train like rhythms & percussive textures
Fox had his operation, and seemingly it had been a great success so he went onto to record & release a new album Rilla Contemplates Love, which is seemingly a concept album based around the life of a gorilla. Though on a sadder note, a month or so back, his website suggested he was either very ill, or dead- it’s still unclear which it is, but I guess like his past project, he's keeping very much keeping the mystery alive.
On the whole Nachtzug is a impressive, shifting & dense work- I’m not sure it’s as listenable as say his self-titled/ heart album, due to the amount of shift in the sonic territory of the release twenty minute runtime- but there is much here to be admired, and if you’ve enjoyed any of his solo work this is certainly worth picking up.