One day I received a lovely little email from an experimental group named Nac/Hut Report. Normally bands don’t email me for press, but I really liked their sound and thought they deserved some recognition. They are unlike anything I’ve heard before, or maybe it’s because the obscure genre they associate with, “musique concrete”, is completely alien to me.
The band is influenced by guitar, electronic, and concrete noises. Bored with the conventional sound of pop music and its harmonies, the two members M.A.D.ame Decode and Li/ese/li integrated their archive of strange sound noises, both ready-made and self-created, into their songs with pop tendencies.
It’s something I’ll coin as “freak pop”. The music is influenced by pop but is very much removed and unfamiliar to the genre. Nac/Hut Report describes themselves as “everything mixed up together for no obvious reason, the worst kind of post-modernism”.
From a previous interview with Puke Skywalker, the band is influenced by Glenn Branca’s no-wave guitars, Pierre Schaeffere, Pierre Henry, Luc Ferrari and Jean Tinguely. The list goes on with Cabaret Voltaire’s first recordings, “Twin Infinitives” by Royal Trux, SPK, Einsturzende Neubauten and Die Todliche Doris.
“I’m really into the digital hardcore stuff,” M.A.D.ame Decode states, adding that the use of electronics is the most unconventional and powerful. “Alec Empire is one of the most interesting artists of our time”.
But again, there’s that small ounce of freak pop. The Pastels, Indian Jewellery and Candy Claws have been some of the band’s favourites to listen to. In the song “Not Completely Legal”, you can feel the pop with an eerie no-wave saxophone repeating in the background presumptuously like a siren with tortured guitars for added flavour. The vocals remain soft and dreamy.
Nac/Hut Report stuck out to me the most for defining themselves as Polish/Italian group. M.A.D.ame Decode hails from Poznan, Poland while Li/ese/li is from Reggio Emilio, Italy.
“We met almost 3 years ago in Krakow. After some months, we started living together. [Now] we're living mainly in Italy, but we often move between Italy and Poland if we have enough money,” says Li/ese/li.
According to M.A.D.ame Decode, both European cities lack a “real music scene”. Most bands end up playing generic mainstream rock, a genre far from the band’s style.
“In Italy, the music is really terrible ... [They] didn't discover the music after the 90s,” Li/ese/li stated. “Maybe there's even something good but we just don't follow it”.
As for the band’s name, Nac/Hut Report emerged during a talk about artistic avant garde. “At one point we realized we’re not part of avant garde but we were just using it to explore our artistic possibilities,” says M.A.D.ame Decode.
The band wanted to define their style as the opposite of avant garde (the advanced guard), which in German means "Nachut" or the "rear guard" in English.
“Then we stumbled onto a German porno movie called Nacht Report (Night Report). We just fused the names and it sounded very good to us”.
Unfortunately, Nac/Hut Report does not have any upcoming North American tour dates but they have released some material including an EP for the American label RCP Tapes in 2009. The LP "9th Overflowing...Milky Slaughterhouse...Dream of Incubator" has been spread label-less throughout the internet for free. You can download the LP for free here in .rar format.
Check out Nac/Hut Report on Last.fm and Myspace for a taste, or join their facebook group for updates.
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