The True Harry Nulz

December 12, 2023

Fur Fish Banana
Boomslang Records No #

One hopes that this session’s tracks were recorded in sequential order. For by the time this septet, conjoined from the members of Austria’s Edi Nulz and Switzerland’s The Great Harry Hillman. reaches the penultimate tracks the improv-punk-indie fusion they’ve aiming for is finally achieved. Before that regrettably Rock music topes seem to dominate. The True Harry Nulz’s (TTHN) never-overbearing electric bass pulse from Swiss Samuel Huwyler is the conduit between the other doubled instruments: drummers Valentin Schuster and Dominik Mahnig; guitarists David Koch and Julian Adam Pajzs; and introducing a distinctive texture to the eight tracks, the bass clarinets of Nils Fischer and Siegmar Brecher. This duality makes it impossible to ascribe individual textures to the paired individuals. But that may be extraneous since Fur Fish Banana is mostly group music.

Realization of TTHN’s notion is most closely realized on “Er Est Tot, Jim” and “Wolkenkaztzen” Here, the previously emphasized prestissimo percussion riffs and reed screams and snorts alternate with andante tongue stops and descending guitar twangs – and in the second case slower string frails and percussion exotica – to delineate slinky horizontal motion propelled by guitar strums and reed burbles. Tense guitar flanges and rugged drum backbeats reappear to challenge clarion clarinet melodies on the final “Dark Dog Day”, suggesting that the band can’t fully avoid Rock-like bombast. While neither drummer emphasizes cymbal color, the combination of percussion rumbles, simple Ventures-like guitar rhythms and reed snarls at the top don’t begin to suggest what is achieved on the disc’s final tracks.

An mid-range first effort, this septet could create more memorable sounds if it more fully explored the track highlights focused on the album’s penultimate tracks.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Strengen Denkt An 2. Un Dass Geheimimnis der Achtelnoten 3. Mustache 4. Stress 5. The New Fragrance 6. Er Est Tot, Jim 7. Wolkenkaztzen 8. Dark Dog Day

Personnel: Nils Fischer and Siegmar Brecher (bass clarinets); David Koch and Julian Adam Pajzs (guitars); Samuel Huwyler (electric bass) and Valentin Schuster and Dominik Mahnig (drums)