uw Hypotheekadvies — Nature or Nurture

Uw Hypotheekadvies are a Dutch threesome, whose name translates to "your mortgage advice", consisting of a drummer, bass player and a guitar player. They all have the last name Deckerman, so either two or more are related, or it's just a Ramones ploy. Their music is a weird combo of experimental improv and spiky post-rock. A few of these songs sound like they are improvs wrapped around pre-figured riffs, but most of the album sounds off-the cuff. With a few exceptions, this is noisy, trebly music, and it's plenty tough on the eardrums.

Listened to in pieces, it's not half bad, though subjecting yourself to the whole thing in one go is somewhat akin to putting yourself through a blender. Perhaps the respites from ear piercing feedback are to the best part of the album simply because they're just that, but these somewhat more mellow (in relative terms!) interludes make you realise that there's some decent Beefheart-ian angularity to be found here and there.

It's hard to say exactly what this is, because though it's noisy, it's not noise, and though it's experimental, it's not too out there. It doesn't quite meet with the spazz rock of, say, the Load Records stable, because it's more post-punk than metal edged. It reminds a tad of the earliest Sonic Youth, and maybe even a slightly more structured, jazzy version of old school No Wave. In other words, it sounds like the sum total of a lifetime of musical influences, all playing at the same time.