i H8 Camera are described as an ‘improvisation collective based in and around Antwerp, Belgium.’ Now, my knowledge of Belgian music extends only as far as Plastic Bertrand from back in the late Seventies, but apparently this collective / jam band contains several ‘stars’ of the country’s underground music scene. The personnel seem to change from show to show depending on availability.
This album represents performances played over the period of 2004 to 2007 and has been edited into a continuous piece. It will be released through Jezus Factory in the UK and will come in a deluxe CD book edition with exclusive artwork from Rudy Trouve. (Sorry – means nothing to me, but I’m sure it will be impressive.) With it going under the title of ‘Volume 1’ I can only surmise there are plans to release a follow-up.
On first listen, I have to concede that I thought it was total pish! Just a random collection of brushed, banged, thumped and plucked instruments producing a totally random and incoherent cacophony of sound. Hardly music!
But nothing finds its way onto this site on only one listen, and the more time and plays it was given, the more the appreciation grew. Sure, it’s still all a bit scatty and ‘out there’ but it reminds me (in atmosphere at least) of the images of the No Wave movement in New York towards the end of the Seventies, when groups of people would gather in various art-spaces and just see what happened.
It’s ‘unconventional’ all right, but in the same way as the likes of Captain Beefheart was regarded way back when. As indeed were Frank Zappa and on a different level, Tangerine Dream. Those acts certainly polarised opinion, and i H8 Camera will do likewise, although there are several ‘lucid,’ moments to be enjoyed like little jazzy guitar breaks, and xylophone runs and a piece that creates images of a Polynesian welcome party!
And that’s the beauty of this kind of music – everyone’s interpretation will be different which makes it hard to give marks out of ten. But for sheer invention and indeed ‘bravery’ in releasing it in the first place, it would certainly merit a 3.5 / 5 – although I fully appreciate some would give it 10 … while others may not even give it the time of day!