5 Rue Christine
2004
The Devil Isn't Red
About This Album
No question about it: Hella's stuttering instrumental jabber is taxing on the ears. But it's worse for the brain, which can't use conventional means to suss out what's so appealing about Spencer Seim and Zach Hill's noisy sputter. "Top Twenty Notes"' building blocks sound familiar enough that they might actually be culled from some chart-topping nugget; however, delivered in fast forward, the song becomes a blur of not quite discernible information, like attempting to read and comprehend sped-up TV show credits. "You DJ Parents" returns Hella to their occasional electronic influence, or rather interference, since the track seems to be assembled from bytes out of jammed radio broadcasts and hijacked video-game consoles. The communication between Seim's finger-flying, trebly electric guitar and Hill's tom-spattering percussion style is still Hella's main method of destruction, and Devil Isn't Red kicks off with a string of cacophonous tunes to recall Hold Your Horse Is's best, most blurting moments. Sometimes, noise rock or avant-garde players focus on feedback and atonality to get their points across, skipping erratically on the line between effective and ridiculously jarring.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,6,7,9 and 10)

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